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Published by 

International Bible Students Association 

Brooklyn, New York, United States of America 



•11 1 



HI HIS little booklet is written and specially 
""- dedicated to certain inquiring friends, 
and to all of mankind who are sincerely in- 
terested in their departed loved ones. 

J. F. KUTHERFOED 



New York, N. Y., U. S. A. 
January, 1920 



MA> 



Copyrighted 1020 by 
Intornaiionai Bible Students Association 



©CU567131 



. I 



FOREWORD 

AMONG- the topics of absorbing interest which are 
before the public mind today none can be of greater 
importance to men and women of every nation than 
"Talking with the Dead" and "Millions now Living 
will Never Die". 

The first of these topics is treated in this booklet in 
such a manner, we trust, as to satisfy the desire of all 
honest truth-seekers and to free them from the distress 
of superstition and needless fear. 

Manuscript on the second topic, "Millions now Living 
will Never Die," is in the course of preparation and is 
expected to be published and sent forth as a companion 
piece to this booklet. 

The demand for these treatises has arisen from the 
fact that lectures on both of these subjects have been 
and still are being delivered in the great cities of 
Europe, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. 
Judge Eutherford, of New York, probably the world's 
best known lawyer-Biblicist, after treating these topics 
orally has been urgently and repeatedly requested to 
put his treatises into printed form. This booklet is 
a response to these urgings. 

INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION 
Brooklyn, N. Y., January 15, 1920 



TABLE of CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

The Colloquy 
Three Gentlemen discuss the subject of Communication with the 
Dead — Two Opposing Views presented, for the purpose of con- 
vincing the third man — Strong arguments pro and con 7 

CHAPTER II 

Psychics Argument 
Holds that such communication is an established fact — Quotes from 
Professor Hyslop and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — Demonstrates 
that a willing mind, a desire to penetrate into the unknown, 
is the first essential to conviction — Evidence produced in 
alleged letters from a dead soldier to his mother 11 

CHAPTER III 

LlGHTBEARER'S ARGUMENT 

Presents negative side of the proposition — Declares that the 
argument stands or falls with the doctrine of the Inherent 
Immortality of man's soul — Cites Scriptures to prove his 
position — What is the soul?- — Death the penalty for sin — 
Satan's great, deception in Eden — Origin of evil spirits or 
demons — Meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection — Satan's 
seed and their work — "The Mystery of Iniquity — Demons 
in Babylon 53 

CHAPTER IV 
Newday's Conclusion 
Holds to the Scriptural evidence — Man's hope of future life lies in 
the Resurrection 97 

CHAPTER V 
Demon Phenomena Analyzed 
Spiritism as reported in the Public Press — Demon methods of 
manifestation — Evil spirits hate and fear the Bible — Have no 
real interest in humanity — Encourage loose morals — Incite to 
murder and other crimes — Have power to inject thoughts into 
men's minds- — Deceive the senses by supposed materializations 
- — Actual materializations have occured, but at cost of suffering 
to the medium — Downward tendency of all spiritist phenomena 
— Victims frequently driven insane 99 

CHAPTER VI 
"Spirits In Prison" 
Critical analysis of a much misunderstood Bible passage — Demons 
under condemnation — Where they are imprisoned — How Jesus 
preached to them 131 

CHAPTER VII 

The Hope for the Dead 
God's method of dealing with the demons — His plan for the Restora- 
tion of fallen Humanity — Satan's repeated endeavors to confuse 
mankind and to turn them from God — Our Lord's Ransom the 
basis for Reconciliation — Jesus the Savior of men 145 



M 



Talking with the Dead 

? ? ? 

• • • 

CHAPTER I 

THE COLLOQUY 

K. PSYCHIC: Good morning, Mr. Newday. I 
read in the paper that your son has fallen in the 
great world war while fighting in France. Permit me 
to extend my condolence and deep sympathy. 

Mr. Newday: Yes, it is true. My beloved son, the 
idol of my life, is gone and my heart is almost broken. 

Psychic : But be of good courage, Mr. Newday; I do 
not believe he is dead. Can you really think your son 
is dead? 

Newday: Oh yes, there is no doubt about it; the 
proof has been brought to me by men who saw him drop, 
pierced with an enemy ball. If only I could have spoken 
to him once before he departed. 

Psychic : I am sure, Mr. Newday, what I am about 
to tell you will bring some consolation to your heart; 
hence I bring this message to you. For some time I 
have been reading in books, papers and magazines some 
very remarkable facts, which seem to show that our dead 
friends are not really dead, but have passed on to another 
world, and that they are progressing in happiness ; and 
that we on the earth, under certain conditions, can com- 
municate with them. 

Newday : But is not that what is known as spiritism, 
which has been attended by so much fraud? How do 
we know that this is not some fraud practiced upon us ? 
Does not human experience show that men have been 

7 



PAGE EIGHT ? 3 ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

dying for centuries, and why should we now think we 
are able to talk with the dead; particularly why should 
this be so since the war? 

Psychic : I know the majority of people have little 
or no confidence in the ability of one to communicate 
with the spirit world — those who have died and gone; 
that they believe it to be fraudulent. But when so many 
great men come forward with their testimony, giving 
their experience — men who have no purpose whatsoever 
in practicing fraud upon others — the situation seems to 
be changed. I know there are many who deny that 
there is even such a thing as a spirit being ; but did not 
Jesus of Nazareth go and preach to the spirits in prison, 
and does not that prove that men who had previously 
died were then alive and able to hear his preaching? 
And if so, is it at all unreasonable to think that they can 
communicate with us? Let me encourage you to in- 
vestigate this, Mr. Newday. 

Newday : Yes, there seems to be some force in your 
argument; but it would really seem too good to believe 
that my son is where I can now talk to him. Ah, but 
here comes Mr. Lightbearer. I know him to be a man 
of sterling honesty and a lover of the truth — one who 
has given much study to the question concerning the 
dead. Let us ask him what he thinks about it. 

Mr. Psychic, please make the acquaintance of Mr. 
Lightbearer. 

Psychic: I am glad to meet you, Mr. Lightbearer. 
Our mutual friend, Mr. Newday, lost his only son in this 
great war and I have just been telling him that I am 
sure his son is not dead and I believe he can talk with 
him if he desires; and he proposed that we ask your 
opinion about this matter. May we be favored with 
what you think upon this subject? 

Mil. LiuuxiiEAHEii : I do not believe we can communi- 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE NINE 

cate with the dead, for the reason that they are dead. 
I do not believe that Mr. Newday can communicate with 
his dead son. To my mind such a conclusion is wholly 
illogical, unreasonable, and above all it is un- Scriptural. 
By this you will understand that I believe in the Bible. 

Psychic : Ah, but we all believe in the Bible. 

Newday : Yes, indeed, I have been a Christian all my 
life and believe the Bible is God's word of truth, given 
to us for our instruction. 

Lightbearer : Well, gentlemen, it is gratifying to 
know that all of us believe in the Bible. We have now 
some reasonable point from which to view this question ; 
and, according to my way of looking at the matter, the 
Bible is the only true and reliable source of knowledge 
concerning it. I consider this a great and vital question 
to the people today and believe that a wrong conclusion 
upon it will have much to do with wrecking society. 

Since we all believe in the Bible as God's inspired 
word of truth, we will surely all agree that the Bible 
must be the final arbiter of this great question. Do we 
all so agree ? Thank you, gentlemen ; I am glad that you 
indicate your assent. 

Newday : Gentlemen, I am at this time more vitally 
interested in this question than either of you, seeing I 
have just lost my beloved son. I believe I am competent 
to weigh dispassionately the arguments pro and contra, 
and I know my desire is to have the truth upon the 
subject. Therefore I propose that each of you present 
your respective arguments and let me make up my mind 
at the conclusion. There can be no harm resulting from 
hearing both sides of the question, and all of us may be 
greatly blessed if we are honest in our endeavors to reach 
a just conclusion. Are you willing to do this ? 

Since you both signify your willingness, we will first 
hear Mr. Psychic present his side. 



CHAPTEE II 

PSYCHIC'S ARGUMENT 

Psychic: The evidence now available proving that 
the living can talk with the dead is so cumulative and 
overwhelming that I attempt to present it to you, Mr. 
Newday, with confidence that I will convince your rea- 
sonable mind of the correctness of the claim; and if I 
do, then I am certain I have done you a great good and 
brought much comfort to your heart. 

I am fully aware of the fact that for many years men 
of strong reasoning faculties have refused to consider 
any evidence on this subject, looking upon it as partak- 
ing of fraud and misrepresentation, or due to some 
hallucination. For a long while the ultra-ignorant and 
superstitious have been willing to listen to such testi- 
mony, but not so with those who desired to have some- 
thing more substantial or tangible upon which to base 
a conclusion. In modern times, however, the conditions 
have been exactly reversed. The world war seems to have 
awakened many and now the greatest thinkers among 
worldly men have become devotees of the psychic science 
and phenomena — men of character, who have no desire 
or purpose to mislead and who would positively refuse 
to be parties to anything that would have a semblance 
of fraud or deceit. Among the great men who have testi- 
fied that the living can communicate with the dead are 
the late William T. Stead, the greatest of modern jour- 
nalists ; Prof. Lombroso, the great scientist ; Prof. James 
H. Hyslop; Crookes, the great chemist; Wallace, Dar- 
win, Plammarion, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Arthur Conan 
Doyle, the Eeverend Fielding Ould, the Eeverend 

11 



PAGE TWELVE ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

Arthur Chambers, the Eeverend Charles Tweedale, the 
late Archdeacon Wilberforce, and many others. 

It will be conceded that man's greatest desire is to 
have and enjoy endless life. Nearly every living person 
has some friend or relative or loved one who has been 
taken away from him by death. The living, of course, 
are deeply interested in their loved ones who have gone. 
They also desire to have some knowledge themselves of 
what the future holds for them. This desire to commu- 
nicate with their departed ones has greatly increased and 
especially has this been augmented by the conditions 
resulting from the world war. When we consider the 
fact that the flower of civilization, the stalwart young 
men of the world by the millions have fallen in the last 
few years, we are not surprised that scientific minds have 
moved with greater energy and a keener desire to know 
what there is beyond the grave. Probably this is the 
reason we have such a great abundance of testimony 
today that the dead are not dead, but are more alive than 
before they died; and that they can communicate with 
those on the earth who have a desire to communicate 
with them and who are willing to meet the necessary 
requirements to do so. 

All the evidence shows, as you will observe, that the 
first thing essential is a willingness to be convinced of 
the truth of psychic claims — a consent of the will and 
the mind to hear, to understand and to believe that our 
dead friends are really alive and that we can communi- 
cate with them ; and with such an open mind we arc in 
a proper attitude to receive the proof, and without it 
we cannot. 

I first desire to call attention to the various tested 
methods by which the living can communicate with the 
dead. I make the following quotation from the book* 

•"Contact With the Other World", Chapter X. 



STALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE THIRTEEN 

by James H. Hyslop, Ph. D., LL. D., formerly Professor 
of Logic and Ethics in Columbia University: 

"The popular terms for the method of communicating with 
the dead are automatic writing, raps, table-tipping, planch- 
ette writing, spelling by the ouija board, impressions, and 
the more technical terms of clairvoyance and clairaudience. 
All but the last two take their names from the physical in- 
struments or the physical means employed in the work. The 
last two are names for peculiar phenomena in vision and 
hearing, which will be more fully described a little later. 

"Automatic writing is distinguished from ordinary writing 
only in being unconscious or involuntary. Only certain tests, 
such as trance or anaesthesia, or the testimony of a trust- 
worthy subject, will decide whether a person is writing auto- 
matically. . . . 

"The methods of table-tipping, the planchette and the ouija 
board are only modifications of automatic writing. Many 
people suppose that there is some mystery or virtue about 
the ouija, which enables it to spell out messages from other 
minds. They do not reflect that the same process is involved 
in all the methods named. The muscular system of the oper- 
ators is in action in each of them in the same way. The 
instrument or means of expression has nothing to do with 
the result, when the human organism must intervene in the 
phenomena. There is no mysterious power in the ouija, the 
planchette, or the table, any more than there is in the pencil. 
They are all agents or media, as they are in normal action 
of the same kind. The actual evidence for the supernormal 
lies, not in the action of automatic writing, of the ouija or 
planchette, or of the table, but in the contents of the mes- 
sage. If the content represents normally acquired informa- 
tion, we explain the message by subconscious action of the 
writer's mind. If the content is unmistakably foreign to 
normal experience, we seek for the external stimulus or 
mind that may account for it. The method of delivery is 
of secondary importance. 

"Another method of communication is by raps. They are 
not always connected with the motor action of the psychic. 
No doubt some raps are simply ordinary automatisms like 
automatic writing and other unconscious actions. But they 
are often independent of any intervention by the human or- 



^GE FOURTEEN ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

ganism as revealed to sense-perception. They are used as sig- 
nals of answers to questions : and, being foreign to either con- 
scious or unconscious action of the organism, another expla- 
nation must be sought for them than for automatic writing. 
The latter assumes at least the intervention of the physical 
organism with its powers and habits. But raps may involve 
no such intermediary and in this case they must be regarded 
as independent physical phenomena. They can be used only 
for answers to questions or for spelling out words in vari- 
ous ways. Their method of communication is crude, in the 
sense that it takes time and trouble to get intelligible mes- 
sages ; but they signify the possibility of communication 
with an outside world without the mediation of the subcon- 
scious or normal machinery of the human organism. 

"Clairvoyance and clairaudience are very different proc- 
esses. Clairaudience is the hearing of apparently foreign 
messages, by means of voices, usually internal voices'. Pos- 
sibly they are sometimes apparently external, but since those 
who experience the facts are not always adept in analyzing 
and describing the experiences, we are not sure that the 
experiences are other than subjective or hallucinatory, 
though the stimulus may be foreign. Both clairaudience and 
clairvoyance are sensory phenomena, unconnected with motor 
action, whereas automatic writing and other forms of com- 
munication, except independent raps, are connected with the 
motor functions. 

"Clairvoyance, however, is a term that does duty for three 
distinct types of phenomena. (1) It denotes generally the 
power of mediumship in so far as the messages are obtained 
by impressions or visual pictures. It is even very often 
to denote any type of communication with the dead, 
and so is made synonymous with mediumship, excluding 
purely physical phenomena (2) It is more technically used 
to denote the acquisition of foreign information through 
visual phantasms, :is clairaudience is used to denote auditory 
hallucinations of the veridical type. (3) Lastly, still more 
technically, it denotes the perception of concealed physical 
objects whoso whereabouts are not known by any living 
being. It represents the visual perception, transcendental in 
nature, of f:icis or things that cannot be known through 
telepathy, it presupposes supernormal perception at a dis- 
. and excludes all mind-reading. This is the more tech- 



TALKING V/ITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE FIFTEEN 

nical conception of the process. Telsethesia is probably a 
better term for this conception of clairvoyance." 

It will be observed that in order to communicate with 
those in the spirit world it is necessary for a living per- 
son on the earth to be willing to be used and to be used 
for that purpose. In other words, there must be a 
medium. The word medium denotes a middle, or inter- 
mediary, between two things— a means of communica- 
tion. Further quoting Dr. Hyslop : 

"It was adopted to denote the agency which intervenes 
between the physical and the transcendental world. The 
only means of communicating with the dead has been found 
to be a living organism capable of connecting the two 
worlds." 

You will observe that all the evidence tending to prove 
that the living can talk with the dead is founded upon 
the great teaching that the soul of man is immortal. Is 
it not true that the Catholic and Protestant churches, 
almost without a single exception, for many centuries 
hava taught that the soul is immortal, that it cannot die ; 
hence when one dies it is merely the body that is dead, 
but the soul lives on? Have not these great religious 
teachers founded their teachings upon the Bible ? Would 
any of us dare say that they do not believe in the Bible ? 
I am free to admit that, aside from the doctrine of 
inherent immortality of the soul, it would be impossible 
for us to believe that the dead are able to communicate 
with those who are on the earth. 

But is it not also true that the best evidence that the 
soul is immortal is the fact that the dead do actually 
talk or communicate with the living? I first offer the 
evidence by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the noted author, 
who has recently published a book entitled, "The New 
Revelation". I quote here liberally from Sir Arthur: 

"Apart from personal experiences, this movement nrast 



PAGE SIXTEEN ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

gain additional solidity from the wonderful literature which 
has sprung up around it during the last few years. . . . 

"Before going into this question of a new religious revela- 
tion, how it is reached, and what it consists of, I would say 
a word upon one other subject. There have always been two 
lines of attack by our opponents. The one is that our facts 
are not true. The other is that we are upon forbidden 
ground and should come off it and leave it alone. 

"... When the war came it brought earnestness into all 
our souls and made us look more closely at our own beliefs 
and reassess their values. In the presence of an agonized 
world, hearing every day of the deaths of the flower of our 
race in the first promise of their unfulfilled youth, seeing 
around one the wives and mothers who had no clear con- 
ception whither their loved ones had gone, I seemed suddenly 
to see that this subject with which I had so long dallied was 
not merely a study of a force outside the rules of science, 
but that it was really something tremendous, a breaking 
down of the walls between two worlds, a direct undeniable 
message from beyond, a call of hope and guidance to the 
human race at the time of its deepest affliction. The objec- 
tive side of it ceased to interest ; for, having made up one's 
mind that it was true there was an end of the matter. The 
religious side of it was clearly of infinitely greater impor- 
tance." 

The evidence seems to show with clearness that those 
beings who are communicating with the living are not 
so far away, but are in fact right near the earth. On 
this point Sir Conan Doyle says: 

"On my asking that lady to raise her hands and give a 
succession of names, that table tilted at the correct name of 
the head mistress of the school. This seemed in the nature 
of a tost. She wont on to say that, the sphere she inhabited 
was all round tl>c earth; that she knew about the planets." 

Continuing, in Chapter II of "The New Revelation", 

Sil Arthur say.- : 

"I can now turn with some relief to a more impersonal 
view of lliis great subject. Allusion lias been made to a 
body of fresh doctrine. Whence does this come? It comes 
In the main through automatic writing where the hand of 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE SEVENTEEN 

the human medium is controlled, either by an alleged dead 
human being, as in the case of Miss Julia Ames, or by an 
alleged higher teacher, as in that of Mr. Stainton Moses. 
These written communications are supplemented by a vast 
number of trance utterances, and by the verbal messages of 
spirits, given through the lips of mediums. Sometimes it 
has even come by direct voices, as in the numerous cases 
detailed by Admiral Usborne Moore in his book The Voices. 
Occasionally it has come through the family circle and table* 
tilting. . . , 

"It has been asserted by men for whose opinion I have a 
deep regard — notably by Sir William Barratt — that psychical 
research is quite distinct from religion. Certainly it is so, 
in the sense that a man might be a very good psychical 
researcher but a very bad man. But the results of psychical 
research, the deductions which we may draw, and the les- 
sons we may learn, teach us of the continued life of the soul, 
of the nature of that life, and of how it is influenced by our 
conduct here. If this is distinct from religion, I must con- 
fess that I do not understand the distinction. To me it is 
religion — the very essence of it. 

"But that does not mean that it will necessarily crystallize 
into a new religion. Personally I trust that it will not do so. 
Surely we are disunited enough already? Rather would I 
see it the great unifying force, the one provable thing con- 
nected with every religion, Christian or non-Christian, form- 
ing the common solid basis upon which each raises, if it 
must needs raise, that separate system which appeals to the 
varied types of mind. The Southern races will always de- 
mand what is less austere than the North, the West will 
always be more critical than the East. One cannot shape 
all to a level conformity. But if the broad premises which 
are guaranteed by this teaching from beyond are accepted, 
then the human race has made a great stride towards re- 
ligious peace and unity. The question which faces us, then, 
is how will this influence bear upon the older organized 
religions and philosophies which have influenced the actions 
of men? 

"The answer is, that to only one of these religions or phil- 
osophies is this new revelation absolutely fatal. That is to 
Materialism. I do not say this in any spirit of hostility to 
Materialists, who, so far as they are an organized body, 
are, I think, as earnest and moral as any other class. But 



TAGE EIGHTEEN ? ( i TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

the fact is manifest that if spirit can live without matter, 
then the foundation of Materialism is gone, and the whole 
scheme of thought crashes to the ground. 

"As to other creeds, it must be admitted that an accept- 
ance of the teaching brought to us from beyond would deeply 
modify conventional Christianity. But these modifications 
would be rather in the direction of explanation and develop- 
ment than of contradiction. It would set right grave mis- 
understandings which have always offended the reason of 
every thoughtful man, but it would also confirm and make 
absolutely certain the fact of life after death, the base of 
all religion. It would confirm the unhappy results of sin, 
though it would show that those results are never absolutely 
permanent. It would confirm the existence of higher beings, 
whom we have called angels, and of an ever ascending hier- 
archy above us, in which the Christ spirit finds its place, 
culminating in heights of the infinitewith which we associate 
the idea of all-power or of God. It would confirm the idea 
of heaven and of a temporary penal state which corresponds 
to purgatory rather than to hell. Thus this new revelation, 
on some of the most vital points, is not destructive of the 
beliefs, and it should be hailed by really earnest men of all 
creeds as a most powerful ally, rather than a dangerous, 
devil-begotten enemy. 

"On the other hand, let us turn to the points in which 
Christianity must be modified by this new revelation. 

"First of all I would say this, which must be obvious to 
many, however much they deplore it: Christianity must 
change or must perish. That is the law of life — that things 
must adapt themselves or perish. Christianity has deferred 
the change very long, she has deferred it until her churches 
are half empty, until women are her chief supporters, and 
until both the learned part of the community on one side, 
and the poorest class on the other, both in town and country, 
arc largely alienated from her. Let us try to trace the 
reason for this. It is apparent in all sects, and comes, there- 
fore, from some deep common cause. 

"People are alienated because they frankly do not believe 
the facts as presented to them to be true. Their reason and 
their sense of justice are equally offended. One can see no 
justice in a vicarious sacrifice, nor in the God who could be 
placated by such means. Above all. many cannot understand 
such expressions as the 'redemption from sin', 'cleansed by 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ff [? $ PAGE NINETEEN 

the blood of the Lamb,' and so forth. So long as there was 
any question of the fall of man there was at least some sort 
of explanation of such phrases ; but when it became certain 
that man had never fallen — when with ever fuller knowl- 
edge we could trace our ancestral course down through the 
cave-man and the drift-man, back to that shadowy and far- 
off time when the man-like ape slowly evolved into the ape- 
like man — looking back on all this vast succession of life, 
we knew that it had always been rising from step to step. 
Never was there any evidence of a fall. But if there were 
no fall, then what became of the atonement, of the redemp- 
tion, of original sin, of a large part of Christian mystical 
philosophy? Even if it were as reasonable in itself as it is 
actually unreasonable, it would still be quite divorced from 
the facts. 

"Again, too much seemed to be made of Christ's death. 
It is no uncommon thing to die for an idea. Every religion 
has equally had its martyrs. Men die continually for their 
convictions. Thousands of our lads are doing it at this 
instant in France. Therefore the death of Christ, beautiful 
as it is in the Gospel narrative, has seemed to assume an 
undue importance, as though it were an isolated phenomenon 
for a man to die in pursuit of a reform. In my opinion, 
far too much stress has been laid upon Christ's death, and 
far too little upon his life. That was where the true grand- 
eur and the true lesson lay. It was a life which even in 
those limited records shows us no trait which is not beauti- 
ful — a life full of easy tolerance for others, of kindly charity, 
of broad-minded moderation, of gentle courage, always pro- 
gressive and open to new ideas, and yet never bitter to those 
ideas which he was really supplanting, though he did occa- 
sionally lose his temper with their more bigoted and narrow 
supporters. Especially one loves his readiness to get at the 
spirit of religion, sweeping aside the texts and the forms. 
Never had any one such a robust common sense, or such a 
sympathy for weakness. It was this most wonderful and 
Uncommon life, and not his death, which is the true center 
pf the Christian religion. 

"Now, let us look at the light which we get from the spirit 
guides upon this question of Christianity. Opinion is not 
absolutely uniform yonder, any more than it is here; but 
reading a number of messages upon this subject, they amount 
to this: There are many higher spirits with pur departed. 



PAGE TWENTY ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

They vary in degree. Call them 'angels', and you are in touch 
with old religious thought. High above all these is the 
greatest spirit of whom they have cognizance — not God, since 
God is so infinite that he is not within their ken — but one 
who is nearer God and to that extent represents God. This 
is the Christ Spirit. His special care is the earth. He came 
down upon it at a time of great earthly depravity — a time 
When the world was almost as wicked as it is now, in order 
to give the people the lesson of an ideal life. Then he re- 
turned to his own high station, having left an example which 
is still occasionally followed. That is the story of Christ 
as spirits have described it. There is nothing here of Atone- 
ment or Redemption. But there is a perfectly feasible and 
reasonable scheme, which I, for one, could readily believe. 

"If such a view of Christianity were generally accepted, 
and if it were enforced by assurance and demonstration from 
the New Revelation which is coming to us from the other 
side, then we should have a creed which might unite the 
churches, which might be reconciled to science, which might 
defy all attacks, and which might carry the Christian Faith 
on for an indefinite period. Reason and faith would at least 
be reconciled, a nightmare would be lifted from our minds, 
and spiritual peace would prevail. . . . 

"When I read the New Testament with the knowledge 
which I have of Spiritualism, I am left with a deep convic- 
tion that the teaching of Christ was in many most important 
respects lost by the early church, and has not come down to 
us. All these allusions to a conquest over death have, as 
it seems to me, little meaning in the present Christian phil- 
osophy, whereas for those who have seen, however dimly, 
through the veil, and touched, however slightly, the out- 
stretched hands beyond, death has indeed been conquered. 
When we read so many references to the phenomena with 
which we are familiar, the levitations, the tongues of flre, 
the rushing wind, the spiritual gifts, the working of wonders, 
we feel that the central fact of all, the continuity of life and 
the communication with the dead, was most certainly known. 
Our attention is arrested by such a saying as: 'Here he 
worked no wonders because the people were wanting in 
faith*. Is this not absolutely In accordance with psychic law 
as we know it? Or when Christ, on being touched by the 
Sick woman, said: 'Who has touched me? Much virtue has 
passed out of me/ could he say more clearly what a healing 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ,3 PAGE TWENTY-0NH1 

medium would say now, save that he would use the word 
'power' instead of 'virtue'. Or when we read : 'Try the spirits 
whether they be of God,' is it not the very advice which 
would now r be given to a novice approaching a stance? . . „ 
Two examples have already been given. One which con- 
vinced me as a truth was the thesis that the story of the 
materialization of the two prophets upon the mountain was 
extraordinarily accurate when judged by psychic law. There 
is the fact that Peter, James, and John (who formed the 
psychic circle when the dead was restored to life, and were 
presumably the most helpful of the group) were taken. 
Then there is the choice of the high pure air of the mountain, 
the drowsiness of the attendant mediums, the transfiguring, 
the shining robes, the cloud, the words : 'Let us make three 
tabernacles', with its alternate reading : 'Let us make three 
booths or cabinets' (the ideal way of condensing power and 
producing materializations) — all these make a very consist- 
ent theory of the nature of the proceedings. For the rest, 
the list of gifts which St. Paul gives as being necessary for 
the Christian disciple, is simply the list of gifts of a very 
powerful medium, including prophecy, healing, causing mira- 
cles (or physical phenomena), clairvoyance, and other pow- 
ers. (1 Corinthians 12:8,11) The early Christian church 
w r as saturated with spiritualism, and they seem to have paid 
no attention to those Old Testament prohibitions which were 
meant to keep these powers only for the use and profit of 
the priesthood." 

You will see that this witness bases much of his con-* 
elusion upon the Bible. I further quote from him : 

"... Communications usually come from those who have 
not long passed over, and tend to grow fainter, as one would 
expect. . . . There is, in Mr. Dawson Roger's life, a very 
good case of a spirit who called himself Manton, and claimed 
to have been born at Lawrence Lydiard and buried at Stoke 
Newington in 1677. It was clearly shown afterwards that 
there was such a man, and that he was Oliver Cromwell's 
chaplain. So far as my own reading goes, this is the oldest 
spirit who is on record as returning, and generally they are 
quite recent. 

"... It may be remarked in passing that these and other 
examples show clearly either that the spirits have the use 
of an excellent reference library or else that they have 



PAGE TWENTY-TWO ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

memories which produce something like omniscience. IS'o 
human memory could possibly curry all the exact quotations 
which occur in such communications as The Ear of Dio- 
nysius." 

The powers of those beyond the grave seem to be 
limited, as Sir Conan Doyle says : "'The spirits seem to 
know exactly what they impress upon the minds of the 
living, but they do not know how far they carry their 
instructions out". There also seem to be lying and 
wicked ones beyond the grave who seek to deceive those 
en this side, according to Sir Arthur, wdio says: 

"... We have, unhappily, to deal with absolute cold- 
blooded lying on the part of wicked or mischievous intelli- 
gences. Every one who has investigated the matter has, I 
suppose, met with examples of willful deception, which occa- 
sionally are mixed up with good and true communications." 

"The conclusion, then, of my long search after truth, is 
that in spite of occasional fraud, which Spiritualists deplore, 
and in spite of wild imaginings, which they discourage, there 
remains a great solid core in this movement which is infi- 
nitely nearer to positive proof than any other religious de- 
velopment with which I am acquainted. As I have shown, 
it would appear to be a rediscovery rather than an abso- 
lutely new thing, but the result in this material age is the 
same. The days are surely passing when the mature and 
considered opinions of such men as Crookes, Wallace, Flam- 
marion, Chas. Richet, Lodge, Barratt, Lombroso, Generals 
Drayson and Turner, Sergeant Ballantyne, W. T. Stead, 
Judge Edmunds, Admiral Usborne Moore, the late Arch- 
deacon \Yi 11mm force, and such a cloud of other witnesses, can 
be dismissed with the empty 'All rot' or 'Nauseating drivel' 
formulae. As Mr. Arthur Hill has well said, we have reached 
a point where further proof is superfluous, and where the 
weight of disproof lies upon those who deny. . . . 

" . . .The situation may, as it seems to me, be summed 
Dp in a simple alternative. The one supposition is that there 
has beet) an outbreak of lunacy extending over two genera- 
lions of mankind, and two great continents — a lunacy which 
assails men or women who are otherwise eminently sane. 
The alternative supposition is thai in recent years there has 
come to us from divine sources a new revelation which con- 



{TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE TWENTY-THREE! 

Btitutes by far the greatest religious event since the death 
of Christ (for the Reformation was a re-arrangement of the 
old, not a revelation of the new), a revelation which alters 
the whole aspect of death and the fate of man. Between 
these two suppositions there is no solid position. Theories 
of fraud or of delusion will not meet the evidence. It is 
absolute lunacy or it is a revolution in religious thought, 
a revolution which gives us as by-products an utter fearless- 
ness of death, and an immense consolation when those who 
are dear to us pass behind the veil." 

As to who may he able to communicate directly with 
their dead friends, Sir Conan Doyle says: 

"... We cannot lay down laws, because the law works 
from the other side as well as this. Nearly every woman is 
an undeveloped medium. . . . 

"The clear call for our help comes from those who have 
had a loss and who yearn to re-establish connection. This 
also can be overdone. If your boy were in Australia, you 
would not expect him to continually stop his work and write 
long letters at all seasons. Having got in touch, be moder- 
ate in your demands. Do not be satisfied with any evidence 
short of the best, but having got that, you can, it seems to 
me, wait for that short period when we shall all be re-united. 
I am in touch at present with thirteen mothers who are in 
correspondence with their dead sons. In each case, the hus- 
band, where he is alive, is agreed as to the evidence. In 
only one case so far as I know was the parent acquainted 
with psychic matters before the war. 

"Several of these cases have peculiarities of their own. In 
two of them the figures of the dead lads have appeared 
beside the mothers in a photograph. In one case the first 
message to the mother came through a stranger to whom 
the correct address of the mother was given. The commu- 
nication afterwards became direct. In another case the 
method of sending messages was to give references to par- 
ticular pages and lines of books in distant libraries, the 
w T hole conveying a message. The procedure was to w T eecl 
out all fear of telepathy. Verily there is no possible way by 
w T hich a truth can be proved by which this truth has not 
been proved." 

Sir Conan Doyle's testimony also shows that this phe- 



PAGE TWENTI-FOUB ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

nomena of communicating with the dead was known 
centuries ago. Upon this point we quote : 

"... Then or afterwards I read a book by Monsieur 
Jacolliot upon occult phenomena in India. Jacolliot was 
Chief Judge of the French Colony of Crandenagur, with a 
very judicial mind, but rather biased against spiritualism. 
He conducted a series of experiments with native fakirs, 
who gave him their confidence because he was a sympa- 
thetic man and spoke their language. He describes the 
pains he took to eliminate fraud. To cut a long story short 
he found among them every phenomenon of advanced Euro- 
pean mediumship, everything which Home, for example, had 
ever done. He got levitation of the body, the handling of 
fire, movement of articles at a distance, rapid growth of 
plants, raising of tables. Their explanation of these phe- 
nomena was that they were done by the Pitris or spirits, 
and their only difference in procedure from ours seemed to 
be that they made more use of direct evocation. They 
claimed that these poicers were handed down from time im- 
memorial and traced back to the Chaldees." 

I now present some testimony which to me is unusual 
and seems to prove conclusively that the living commu- 
nicate with the dead. In November, 1919, The Ladies' 
Home Journal published a manuscript, concerning 
which the Editor of that journal says : "The manuscript 
was received from a known author. Convinced of the 
sincerity of the author, and realizing that these mes- 
sages from an American soldier were no ordinary spirit 
communications, the publishers asked for further infor- 
mation. The author replied: c l ask you to regard the 
book as truth, unaccompanied by proofs of any sort, 
making its own explanation and appeal'/' 

Briefly epitomized, this testimony is to the effect that 
a mother and her only son were much devoted to each 
other. The son was interested in wireless telegraphy. 
The war came on and the son received word from Wash- 
ington to dismantle the wireless apparatus immediately. 
The son was very much disappointed, saying that he 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE TWENTY-FIVE 

believed he was just on the verge of hitting a plan to do 
away with a lot of unnecessary paraphernalia with ref- 
erence to wireless. The son was sent to France, assigned 
to an engineers' corps and became a second lieutenant. 
In one of the battles in France he was killed. Immedi- 
ately thereafter the mother received a wireless message 
in the Morse code as follows : 

"Mother, be game. I am alive and loving you. But my 
body is with thousands of other mothers' boys near Lens. 
Get this fact to others if you can. It's awful for us when 
you grieve, and we can't get in touch with you to tell you 
we are all right. This is a clumsy way. I'll figure out 
something easier. I'm confused yet. Bob." 

This communication continued between the mother 
and son by wireless, but soon the wireless was laid aside. 
To quote her : "I have had, up to the time that I began 
to arrange for publishing, almost daily communications 
from my son. As will be noted by an early letter, the 
use of the wireless telegraph was soon abandoned for the 
better-known automatic writing simply as a matter of 
convenience." 

The letters which follow, and which I herewith submit 
from the manuscript as published, seem to me to be sub- 
ject to explanation by no other means than that they 
came from the spirit of her dead son. Prefatorily the 
mother says: 

"So the news that my son had been killed came to me 
from his own intelligence by the methods we had used to- 
gether in our experiments here in this very room. And so 
I am transcribing it, as he told me to do, for all to see who 
can be convinced of its sincerity. I have no explanations or 
proofs other than those that are given here: A man who 
was killed in tattle and is yet alive, and able to communi- 
cate with the one closest to Mm in sympathy, must make 
Ms own arguments. I have no knotvledge of established 
psychic laivs or limitations. But I know what I know." 

The science of communicating with the dead seems to 



PAGE TWENTY-SIX ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

have advanced with this witness. The use of cabinets 
and like paraphernalia seems unnecessary. The manu- 
script reads: 

"Bob dwells upon the simplicity of it. He makes it plain 
— to me — that there is no need of the outside 'hocus-pocus' 
of mystery trumpery and cabinets and ignorant go-betweens, 
trances and crystal gazings, and all that sort of thing. He 
dwells on the discovery that the mortal really puts on im- 
mortality. 

"He finds it difficult to describe what the difference is 
in what we call the spiritual world: the ways of living, 
eating, drinking and dressing. 'As far as I can see,' he 
says, in .one of his very late letters, 'this is a place where 
one can carry out his own inclinations ; for instance, I am 
plugging away at the wireless as I wanted to do before I 
came. I live with a lot of other fellows in camp just now.' " 

And now, Mr. Newday, I call your attention to a 
number of letters communicated by that son to his 
mother direct, and which I believe will be sufficient to 
convince you that your son is not dead but lives, and 
that you can communicate with him if you have the 
willing desire so to do. I submit these letters, which 
speak for themselves: 

"Letter Num~bcr Tico (ly wireless). 

"Attention: Get this across — there is no horror in death. 
I was one minute in the thick of things, with my company, 
and the next minute Lieutenant Wells touched my arm and 
said: 'Our command has crossed. Let's go.' I thought he 
meant the river, and followed him, under the crossfire bar- 
rage the Tommies made, up to a hillside that I had not 
noticed before — a clean spot not blackened by the guns. Lots 
of fellows I knew were there, and strange troops. Bui they 
looked queer. I glanced down at myself. I was olive-drab 
all right But my uniform was not khaki; it seemed to be 
a fabric of some more tenuous kind. 1 had no gun. 

"I overtook Wells. 'What in the deuce is the matter with 
me, with us all?' I asked. lie said: 'Bob, we're dead'. I 
didn't believe it at first, i felt all right. But the men were 
proving, and I fell in line. When we marched through the 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE TWENTY-SEVEN 

German barbed-wire barricades and in front of the howitz- 
ers, I realized that the body that could be hurt had been 
shed on the red field. Then I thought of you — sent that 
wireless from an enemy station in the field. The officer in 
charge couldn't have seen me. But he heard, I guess, by the 
w T ay his eyes popped. He sent a few shots in my direction, 
anyway. 

"I am using an abandoned apparatus in a trench today, 
depending on relays. We are assigned to duty here for the 
present, according to Wells. I don't know how he knows. 
It seems while we have no supernatural power to divert or 
stop bullets, we can comfort and reassure those who are 
about to join us. There has been much talk about the pres- 
ence of one supposed to be the Savior among the dying. I 
should not wonder if that were true. The capacity for 
believing is enlarged by experience. But as yet I have no 
more real knowledge than any of the other fellows. I will 
let you know as I gain information. Others, like me, 
will pick up and relay the messages. 

"Letter Number Three (by ivireless). 

"Attention: As I see this war, a curious understanding 
of its purpose and ultimate result is dawning in my mind. 
The soldiers are the pick of humanity: the young, brave, 
blameless manhood that has been brought to its majority on 
the earth so that it may form an ideal democracy in this 
existence which, I am told, is of permanent character. I 
am bungling the big idea. But, you know what I mean, 
mother. I'll grow clearer, maybe. Wells is getting to be 
a whale of an oracle. Some of the fellows are in a funk, 
and others are sullen and unhappy ; homesick, I guess. The 
young married men mostly. If they could get in touch with 
their folks it would be all right. That's why I want to try 
and simplify some system of communication. You have 
never failed me ; and now if you can get it firmly fixed in 
your mind that I am I, not what is vulgarly called a ghost 
but a being just as much as I ever was, we can start some- 
thing worth while. It's got to begin with some one as level- 
headed as you are. I'm called away. 

"Letter 'Number Four {"by wireless). 

"Attention: We hit upon the key word when we agreed 
to use the word 'Attention' in our wireless practice. It is 



PAGE TWENTY-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE D®0> 

the word that unlocks the inner, or secret, ear to hear other- 
wise inaudible voices. Do you get me? I mean: when you 
want to talk with me, concentrate your mind by calling your 
own faculties, the unused ones, mostly, to 'attention'. See 
if they don't respond. It may require practice, but I am told 
there is no reason in the worlds — notice the plural— why we 
should not talk with the greatest ease and without any 
mechanics. Come up and try tomorrow. See if I can't 
project my thought direct to yours. Bring pencil and tablet 
if you want to. But a fellow here who knows all about 
automatic writing says there is no pencil guiding by unseen 
hands about it. The recipient just takes dictation. Better 
bring the pencil. You will want to report this just as it is 
for our purpose. I'll find out all I can, but just now we are 
engaged here in relief work. Some of the chaps are very 
young, and we see them through. I'll explain about those 
unused faculties when I learn more definitely about them. 

"Ed. note (by the mother) : I tried to write automatically 
that afternoon, but what I got did not satisfy me. I seemed 
to be 'faking' the message. I gave it up and called Bob 
by wireless as I used to call him. He did not answer. I 
tried it again with the pencil and had a few words. But 
afterward we progressed with increasing ease and freedom 
by means of that method. The unnumbered messages fol- 
lowing were all automatically written. 



"This is harder— will have to practice. But it can be 

done. 

* * * 

"Try to realize that thought is the one thing that is abso- 
lutely unlimited. You can send your thought to the most 
remote place as easily as you can direct it to something in 
your immediate neighborhood, Science has not explained 
why. Interspace communication is not more mysterious than 
this. I want to put this over, mother. Not on our account 
alone. But because the little old world needs comforting. 
If we can convince folks that this is true, we can go a long 
way toward wiping out sorrow. T must go. 

"Don't go to mediums. Some are, of course, genuine. 
But the dollar sign is apt to cover fraud. If you want to 
get in touch wiih us— get in touch. That is, get into a quiet 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE TWENTY-NINE 

corner and listen with your inner ear, your unused finer 
perceptions. You will be able really to hear what I am say- 
ing, after some practice. I am told this by a man who has 
come to instruct us. I think, on my own hook, that you 
will have to rid your mind of worry or prejudice before we 
can make much headway. Any one who wants [wills] to 
can put out a mental wire that will be picked up. But you 
must 'beware of strangers !' Quote that. There are scala- 
wags ready to jump into all conversations and mix up things 
if permitted. Keep your wires clear. 

*'You ask how to keep the scalawags away- — and who and 
what are they? I don't just know who they are. I'll try 
and find out. But you have to 'make a law'. That sounds 
occult and I do not want anything to be spooky or unnatural 
in these letters. But that is the expression I hear often 
concerning this particular difficulty. These wire tappers 
cannot get by, it seems, unless you permit them to fool you. 
You say : 'I will not entertain mischievous spirits'— or some- 
thing like that ; and they beat it. I do not know why that 
is efficacious. But it is. 

* * * 

"I have just come in from duty. I mean by coming in 
that I have come back to what I may describe as field head- 
quarters. As I get more accustomed to conditions, I see that 
there are about a thousand men here, some of them boys 
from my regiment. Mother, the soul leaves the body as a 
boy jumps out of a school door. That is suddenly and with 
joy. 'But there is a period of confusion when a fellow needs 
a friend.' Quote that. We are the friends. I guess that 
is the best explanation I can give. I told you Jack Wells 
came through with me. He has gone away now. I am told 
we go to other departments of usefulness, as others, suited 
to this field work, come on here. I will tell you as much 
as I can. 

"You complain that you cannot really get much of an idea 
of conditions from what I tell you. I want you to be able 
to take my dictation like a prize winner and, in the mean- 
time, I'll try and get a line on things here. So far it is 
nothing very different from what we knew before the change. 
We go and come and serve. But evidently we are not seen. 
We do not seem to need food or sleep. I suppose we absorb 
moisture. I think our tenuous bodies are composed like 



PAGE THIRTY ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

clouds. But I do not know. Anyway, your boy's heart is 
still in the right place. 

"I see your mind like a white screen, and I know I can 
write on it. Let's make a regular job of this book. You 
can edit the copy you get, of course. But don't put any lit- 
erary frills in it, will you? When we get into the swing of 
it tell some of the other mothers. But teach them how to 
establish communication with their boys, themselves. 

"I guess you had better wait until you feel me calling you 
after this. We have important duties that we should not 
leave. About telling others : that is wLat we are doing this 
for, isn't it? A kind of a 'comfort ye my people' idea. But 
Ave must be very wise and level-headed. I don't believe I 
should try to get messages for others. Every man his own 
medium is the best plan. It would be human nature to 
doubt the genuineness of ?. letter from this side. Faith 
stops short at this threshold. But show some friends who 
need this particular kind of comfort what you know. Don't 
back out when you are laughed at. It's all in the big busi- 
ness we have taken on." 

And now, Mr. Newday, I want to impress upon you 
again the great doctrinal teaching we have received in 
our churches from time immemorial, which our clergy- 
men have told us time and time again; viz., that the 
soul is immortal; and this is the very basis for our 
communication with the dead. Mark the next message 
in this manuscript: 

"For we must start on the fact that the soul is immortal. 
There is no death for the individual. As so many — even 
material-minded men — realize, the body is an exchangeable 
garment and docs not count in the history of the man. It 
seems that there have been an interminable number of 
races and nations lost in obscurity. They have moved on 
to other worlds, as this present race must be moved on. I 
do not know why civilization is allowed to reach a high 
mark before it is wiped off the slate. But that has been 
the rule, and so the Creator must have a purpose. 

"I asked one of the teachers, and he said that the earth 
is a preparatory planet The human race is marked for an 
advanced existence and is brought to as high a degree of 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE THIRTY-ONB 

perfection as may be necessary to bring up the average. 
That is, the high degree of intelligence of the greater num- 
ber lifts the lesser in the scale. We begin the new existence 
where we left off in the old. The more we have gained, the 
greater our advancement among far more favorable condi- 
tions. That is not clear. I'll get a better hold on the idea. 

"There are a number of dogs with us. I do not know 
whether they are astral dogs or not. They look just the 
same to me, and they go with us and help with our work. 
The boys who come out are simply delighted to see them. 

"Jack Wells is back with us and in immediate command 
of our company. He has been to see his mother, and he is 
one happy boy. She is somewhere here. Has been out for a 
long time. But one of the messengers found him for her and 
lie got immediate leave to go. That sounded pretty good to 
me. He will tell me about things later. We are very busy. 

"Don't try to hold your pencil any differently than you 
hold it ordinarily, mother dear. I am not guiding your pen- 
cil. As I figure it out, I am simply dictating these letters, 
by some improved form of telepathy, to your mind. You 
do the writing. It is wholly simple. I really talk, and you 
hear. Please get that to our audience. We all have percep- 
tions and faculties that are capable of lifting us into super- 
men. The rub is we do not suspect our own powers. Do 
not let yourself be led into a maze of reasons why this 
thing cannot be. What is, is. If a theory of cosmic con- 
sciousness accounts for these communications to any one, if 
he thinks your mind is drawing them from a reservoir which 
holds dream stuff and the intangible echoes of the thought 
of all ages, let it go at that. Don't argue. 

"I told you that we are not given any power over bullets. 
That we can comfort but not save from what you call death. 
That is not quite the case, I find. Jack Wells directed me 
to stand by a junior lieutenant today and impel him this 
way or that to avoid danger. In this way I discovered that 
my perceptions are much more sensitive than they were 
before I came out. I can estimate the speed and determine 
the course of shells. I stood by this fellow and nudged him 
here and there — kept him from being hurt. I asked Wells 
if that was an answer to prayer. Wells said: 'No, the 
young chap is an inventor, and has a job ahead of him that's 
of importance to the world'. An older man spoke up and 



PAGE THIRTY-TWO i * i TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

said: 'Prayers are answered. Don't make any mistake 
about that. But they are not answered according to mate- 
rial ways of looking at things.' I did not get his explanation 
well enough to venture to repeat it. I'll know more, prob- 
ably, as I go on. 



"Mother dear, you are behaving like a brick. I tell you 
we are going to get this mortality play across the footlights. 
And it must be known as truth. I don't mean to call it that. 
But you know what is in my mind. If you could hear the 
cries that come to us from mothers and fathers and wives 
and orphans, you would know how continuously I plan and 
mull over this proposition. If you could just make them 
understand that there is no death. If you could just make 
them know that they can call their own loved ones to them 
and hear, at first-hand, that all is well beyond what has 
truly been called 'the veil'. It is not more than that. It is 
not as much. A veil is woven fabric more or less resistant. 
We are separated from our living (I wrote 'living'; please 
cross it out, because it would indicate that we are dead, and 
we are not) , our own folks, by nothing but those unused facul- 
ties I spoke of on your side. Urge immediate development of 
these faculties. Teachers will, I am told, soon appear who 
are capable of waking these sleeping senses. With that 
accomplishment we shall be face to face." 

The evidence seems to show that those who are 
beyond cannot against our wills read our thoughts who 
are on this side, but that they can hear our words. This 
would seem to indicate that we can keep our secrets only 
by not telling them out to any one. The next communi- 
cation reads: 

"I can't read your mind yet. Speak to me as you would 
if you could see my face. Fancy thai we are silting in the 
dark but fully aware of each other's presence. If you ever 
need me especially do not hesitate to call mo, or at any 
other time. If I do not hear you some one will carry the 
age on until I ^ r et it. I have been so engrossed with these 
strange happenings thai I may have seemed cold. But dear, 
mother, I never loved you better than I do now. And 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE THIRTY-THREE 

I understand all the subtle wonders of your love for me, 
as your son, far better than I did before. 



"You remember that we felt rather a shock when that 
woman you know edited a book of letters from this side in 
ivhich clothes and victuals and drink were much dwelt upon. 
I think some one of those mischief makers that I referred 
to some time ago was fooling her. There are, as I explained, 
many intelligences here that delight in playing jokes on the 
credulous when they can get on the etheric wave that is 
being used by communicants. Of course I am not competent 
to make any positive statement. But I think the condi- 
tions here are wholly spiritual. The physical body and its 
functions have been discharged. Only the emotions of the 
soul remain. I wonder if I can make that more plain. 

"I surely want to be a reliable correspondent, and I want 
to show that while the human machine ceases with the 
body, all the fine raptures that made the happinesses of 
earth are with the spirit. I, myself, appear just as you last 
saw me. But. I am doubtless clothed in that same cloudlike 
vapor that composes my body. I am the same, yet not the 
same, freed from the gross conditions that attend humanity 
and yet capable of love and the higher expressions of mar- 
riage. I shall have opportunities to learn definitely con- 
cerning these things and I Avill tell you — as frankly as I 
have always told you — things that boys generally keep 
from their mothers. 

"I have not seen any one with wings. We cover any 
number of miles without fatigue. That is a good thing, for 
I have not heard of any rest from labor being advocated. 
We do, however, rest others. We ease the boys in the 
trenches — they wonder how they can sleep so comfortably 
on the hard, wet ground — and for several nights, now, I 
have been holding a sick boy in my arms. These duties keep 
us occupied almost all the time, but we have undiminished 
force and are never weary. I hear continually of the pres- 
ence of the Savior on the battlefields. I think this must be 
true. Anyway, the dying are certain that he has been with 
them, and they are happy. They speak of his love. 

"Tell this to mothers. Jack Wells talked with me last 
night, and he gave me a great description of what he saw 
when he went away for his visit. His mother heard that 



PAGE THIRTY-FOUR ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

he had come west, and she sent a messenger for him. It 
seems the messengers are somewhat different from the rest 
of us. I will speak of that later. Jack accompanied this 
messenger. They pierced the envelope of the earth, or at 
least found some exit. From what Jack gleaned, he thought 
the world we have believed to be so tremendously powerful 
is really much like the smallest ball in the nest of balls that 
are carved out of ivory by Orientals. One within the other, 
you know. You have to penetrate one to gain access to 
another of larger size. So, as I understand it, the spiritual 
worlds of our solar system are swung into space, not sepa- 
rately, but together, each on its own axis but all moving in 
harmony as one. 

"The progress of the soul is through these spheres up to 
the highest development. The earth is the material or low- 
est form. We have often w 7 ondered why Christ came to 
save one little planet when he seemed to belong equally to 
the whole universe. But it seems that this is the cradle of 
humanity. That herein was established the race of men, 
an independent order of creation that was to acquire through 
knowledge of sin and pain and sacrifice, a strength that 
should fit men for leadership among supermen. Jack's 
mother is in the next world, and from what he says I was 
not right about the manner of living. 

"His mother received him in a home where other members 
of the family were waiting for him, and it was just a 
happy reunion. While he was conscious that they had all 
passed through the experience of death, he could not really 
see any change in their appearance. They were dressed in 
what appeared to be fabrics but were probably vapor stuff, 
and they seemed to eat and drink and live much as they 
lived on earth. It is said that business is conducted along 
ideal lines, and agriculture is brought to perfection. There 
are many chemists and inventors at work to develop re- 
gources, and as the different globes are intercommunicable, 
the earth gets the benefit of the discoveries. 



"Jack's mother and sister are leachers. It is the busi- 
ness of those who are familial- with the law of the place to 
Instruct others. Ruth Wells was killed in an automobile 
accident a day or so before she was to have been married. 
Her lover went out with the Canadians and has been doing 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE THIRTY-FIVE 

great work in the air. He came out (died) while Jack was 
there, and he came straight to Ruth with a messenger she 
had sent to watch for his arrival." 

It seems that those who have died since this great 
world war are anxious to start a propaganda for the 
education of the people ; hence I feel justified in coming 
to see you, Mr. Newday. Note what this soldier boy 
says to his mother: 

"You ask where I am? I am right now in and about 
Verdun, and I have not often been away from my division. 
As I told you, some of us are assigned to escort duty. 'When 
the boys come west' — quote that — we meet and guide them 
across the Invisible Line. Most of them feel perfectly fit 
when they come. But some few are confused or frightened, 
particularly about the sorrow of those they leave behind. 
Try and make this point plain to the families. The boys 
are all right. Do not mourn for them. Every tear tortures 
the dead. 

"I only want to start this whole propaganda of comfort on 
the one sure thing : There is no death. 



"Mother, I have found out another thing from this point 
of view. There is little or no fear of death among men who 
go into battle. The soul seems to remember, suddenly, that 
it may be about to repeat an interesting experience. 

"The physical side of the soldier is dominated by the 
spiritual and carried on with a kind of thrilling joy. The 
meanest man sometimes surprises his comrades by exhibi- 
tions of courage. This is the reason. 

"In this connection I must mention Cooper. You will 
remember that I wrote you about him when I enlisted: 
He seemed to be the one blot on our regimental 'scutcheon. 
A sniveling 'willy boy' who was afraid to go home in the 
dark. We all wondered how he stood the examiner's gaff 
and was accepted. He had prayed, very likely, that he 
would be turned down. 

"Well, he came west since I last wrote you. I happened 
to be near when the grenade fell in the trench and saw him 
grab it in his arms and scramble out with it before it 



PA'^E THIRTY-SIX ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

exploded. He saved a whole company: among them many 
wounded. I went with him over the top and j r elled: 'Bully 
for you, Coop, old man !' 

"Then the bomb blew away his mortality, and he saw me. 
We left the field together, and I took him back among the 
hills where the particular group of helpers headed by Jack 
Wells gave him the glad hand. He's all right and a trump 
among us. Get word to his mother. 

"I got your word about the difficulties you are meeting 
in conveying the information. Isn't it curious that the 
human mind instinctively rejects the easiest answer to a 
problem ? 

"Well, get such comfort across as you can, but do not try 
to convince any that you communicate with me. You would 
probably be carted off to a padded cell if you should tell 
all we shall talk about. For I feel that we shall get on 
farther soon. Wells says a new company is to relieve us, 
and we will 'proceed to our destination'. 



ooper is in a blue funk about his mother. She is frantic 
with grief, and he cannot communicate with her. She is 

many Christians. She subscribes to a creed — but she 
doesn't believe it. If she would just take her pencil in her 
hand, and let Coop do the rest! Then she would come to 
know that her son and all the other sons are living and only 
kept from being happy and full of new and splendid ambi- 
1 ions by the tears of those they love on earth. To mourn 
is natural: but it really isn't natural to be hopeless." 

You will see, Mr. Newday, those dead soldier boys are 
anxious to spread This news of their ability to communi- 

K it h their mothers and that is evidently the re; 
v«»u see so much in the magazines and public press today 
l1 communication with the dead. I quote the next 
, to his mother: 

"If viiu cotil. 1 see the way the fellows here feel you would 
know why I harp on publicity for this scheme of coniinuni- 

►n. There may be a better one. But 1 don't know about 
o or three of the sanest women you know who 
:• <jr.es — and almost every one has or will — 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE THIRTY-SEVEN 

and persuade them to try. Show them how you do. Tell 
them there is no mystery or flub-dub. 

"Tackle Mrs. K : she is level-headed. Take her fully 

into your confidence — show her these letters if you want to. 
Tell her to spread the truth. You know how you feel when 
you have been cross or unjust, or something like that, to 
some one you really care for. You can hardly wait to make 
up. That's the trouble on both sides with those who cross 
the line and those left there. Grief is mostly remorse for 
things done or left undone, and there is no chance to make 
up. Coop says he was a rotter to his mother, and he has 
lately heard her crying that she had been harsh with him 
when he was a little boy. 

"How quickly they could square things if she only knew 
that he was closer to her in actual presence and in sympathy 
than he had ever been before. 



"As far as I can make out, we are going to a very real 
world; a globe divided into parts of land and water; one 
of the near stars, maybe. I'll find out about that. We are, 
I am informed, much the same as we were before we came ; 
except that we are no longer limited or hampered by the 
fiesh-and-bone body we formerly occupied. We have been 
'raised spiritual bodies' just like the old Book says. But it 
is the spirit that quickeneth, isn't it? So there you are. We 
are still folks — and not still folks either — nobody dumb iiere, 
as far as I can learn. 

"To return to the worlds. I hear that we are to swing 
along in the old reliable solar system with the rest of you. 
It seems Mother Earth has all the time been wearing her 
right title. I have heard that the earth is the cradle, or 
the incubator, of the human race, and that the other planets, 
all intercommunicable, are inhabited by those who have 
passed through the earth experience. There may be other 
Mother planets. I don't know. But 'his kingdom ruleth 
over all'. 

"I have not tried to write you lately because I have been 
on the job night and day. The world we are to go to will 
be the Country of the Young in fact. So many boys are 
coming out. And they are all right. Do get that word 
across. Do make it your business to get that across. 



PAGE THIRTY-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

"Tlie one thing that troubles the men -who come here is the 
fact that the ones that love them are in agony. 

"Get around on that side of the question with your old 
pluck and tell the mothers and fathers and sisters and wives 
to stop crying. No man can stand the sight of tears, the 
sound of sobs. They feel it much worse here, because they 
can't get in touch to comfort. It's awful. It will seem queer 
when I say that we don't bother much about any physical 
pain our folks suffer. That is a transitory thing. We know 
it for what it is. But we are still capable of mental anguish. 
That is the hell material. And every tear shed on earth 
falls on a heart here. A wail is continually coming to us 
from every side. Have them stop it. 
* * * 

"The limitations of the human vision and the circum- 
scribed range of the human perception of sound are what 
separate us. Not that we are forever, even in thought, hover- 
ing around our folks on earth. That would be rather horrid, 
wouldn't it? We observe proprieties and wait for invita- 
tions. Just while we are trying to establish communica- 
tions, we are making frequent calls. After that we go about 
our business and send our messages by operators from 
wherever we may be — and we'll make visits as boys go home 
at Christmas or birthdays. If you send very urgent calls 
we must answer. 

"Mother dear, when you are writing for me be rather care- 
ful not to interpolate. You do not, much. But we want this 
to be pretty direct, don't we? Our only object now is to get 
this comfort — this possibility of communication between the 
seen and unseen living — to those that mourn. You do not 
feel any fatigue or strain, do you? Your arm does not get 
numb? Why should there he any effect of that sort? This 
is simply thought transference, dictation — a perfectly nat- 
ural tiling. Induce others to get into communication with 
tnese boys who want to butt in while I talk to you. I am 
besieged to give yon addresses. lint if yon can get any 
publisher to take these notes. I guess that will be the best 

\va\ to gel an audience. Try or . They are 

both good firms and Libera] thinkers. 
* * * 

"We are Immediately going to start for the Outside. Other 
companies have come to lake our places on the field. I am 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE THIRTY-NINE 

distinctly agitated. Do not know whether I shall be able to 
get in touch with you or not. Shall certainly try- Anyway, 
you will know that I am all right, and that some day we are 
going to be together again. Be a game little sport, and 
don't cry. I'll feel your tears if you do. And they will 
make me wretched. Everything is all right. No doubt, 
whatever. I hope that I shall be able to visit you. Anyway, 
we are mother and son and — pals, always." 

The evidence seems to warrant the conclusion, Mr. 
Newday, that your son now may be right by your side, 
or very near you at least. The soldier boy writing to 
his mother testifies that he is not in some far-away 
planet, but says: 

"I am still in the atmosphere. We had prepared to leave 
for a destination unnamed: for others arrived to take our 
places as helpers on the battlefield. Some men, or I suppose 
they are angels, came to act as our escort. Jack Wells got 
our particular bunch — about forty — into shape, and we stood 
in marching formation on a little hill until the word was 
given to start. We did not fly or float or anything like that. 
We just marched at a good rattling pace. The only thing 
strange about it was that we did not mind such natural 
obstacles as forests or rivers, but went right along through 
or over them. This was the case outdoors. But we did 
not pass through closed buildings or walls. At all times we 
looked for the openings or gates. I asked the man (angel) 
about whether we had really bulk or weight. He answered 
me. But I didn't understand well enough to make it clear, 
I am afraid. I think he meant that our bodies are heavier, 
or denser, than air. As these facts are made known to me, 
I will tell you. 

1 "We passed through several villages, one of which I had 
seen on the way to the line. It had been shelled and de- 
stroyed. There were human bodies everywhere. They looked 
like, and were, no more than so many abandoned shells or 
coverings. From this point of view there is no more in 
death than removal from one house to another. In most 
cases the separation of the soul and body was complete. 
Where there was still some clinging to the body on the 
part of the soul, some of us waited to comfort and cheer. 



PAGE FORT? ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DE&D 

Now and then we came across a frightened or dazed spirit ; 
and we helped there. 

"But there were many men and women from this side 
present among the ruins, and their special care seemed to 
be the children. Some beings (angels) literally carry the 
little ones on their bosoms. I had supposed that we would 
leave the atmosphere of the earth by ascending into higher 
legions. We are all more or less influenced by Raphael's 
'Ascension', I suppose. But it seems that there are points 
of egress reached by defined channels, ports of departure. 
At present I cannot tell you where the one we were assigned 
to is located, because we were recalled. 

"And the manner of the recalling will interest you. The 
march was well under way when there was an order to 
'right about face' and we started back. Jack Wells was 
marching with the Man in command — I have not yet learned 
his name or -what to call him — when he turned around and 
said he had orders to return. 

"Plow he got the orders puzzled me. There were no mes- 
sengers or mechanical means like telephones or wireless. But 
it seems we acquire the ability to hear anything addressed 
to us, personally, through any amount of space. That is 
how you reach us. And what ice are trying to do now is 
to have you hear us as well as we hear you. Please italicize 
this when you print what I say. 



"I wish you would read Swedenborg again, and compare 
what he says with what I may be able to tell you. You 
remember we read a book of his together that winter I had 
to stay indoors. I hope to see some of our great forces 
over on this side, or beyond this particular side, as I pro- 
gress Just when that will be I cannot guess. It seems we 
are still on the battlefields, where our work is to ease 
the wounded. This we are able to do. Emphasize this, 
mother. For every boy that is hurt or terrified, there is a 
comforter. I wrote you that we hear, continually, that the 
S;ivior is often seen on the fields. I have not dared to look, 
sometimes, when I have felt, rather than seen, a strange 
soft light I am not ready to look just now. But there is 
no doubt that he moves among the soldiers. I am called 
away. 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE FORTY-ONE 

"I get all your messages, mother. I can only answer a 
few questions, partly because I am not yet sure of many 
things here and partly because there seems to be no means 
of communication concerning certain conditions. That is, 
when we get beyond the usual we are beyond the common 
medium of language. The words we know are inadequate 
to express our revelations. Of course, until we move on 
into the Big Places, we are really on almost the same footing 
as though I, too, w T ere in the flesh. But when the Big Places 
are reached, I shall have more difficulty in conveying my 
information. At least, so I suppose. 

"Now I am to continue in the ether for a time, anyway. 
Ought to pick up considerable news for you. If I dwell on 
things that seem the least important, perhaps it is because 
of this angle of vision. Now the all-important matter to the 
boys here is to have their folks know T that they are alive 
and well and filled with intense enthusiasm and ambition. 

"Take up the Bible and read it with this that I am telling 
you in mind. I expect, as time goes on, I shall be able to 
describe scenes and customs to you — after the manner of the 
observant traveler but now what you must learn is this: 
in this intermediate place, which is neither wholly material 
nor wholly spiritual, we are busy and so happy, or would be 
if it were not for the sobs and tears of our folks. Please 
do not give way to sadness, mother. And for heaven's sake 
(this is literally for heaven's sake) beg the mourners to stop 
crying and to cease wearing black clothes. 



"As far as modes of living, habits of angels, philosophies 
and opinions, my reports are likely to be as accurate as the 
average traveler's in an unfamiliar country. But I'll correct 
any misstatement as I go on and learn more. Our main 
business, now, is to establish definite lines of communication. 

"The fighting has sw r ung back to about the place where 
I fell. Think of me as doing a man's part still, right in the 
battle. We do not fight. We form the relief division and 
bring comfort and aid to the wounded. Many of the soldiers 
see us ; that does not mean, always, that they are dying men. 
They seem to have supernormal vision. I do not like that 
word. But let it go. 

"I was easing a boy in my arms ; but he was very young, 
and he wanted his mother. I could not comfort him. Some 



PAGE FORTY-TWO ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

One beside me said : 'I will take him'. I could not look up. 
But I knew who it was. Let mothers hear of this. 

"Please do not elaborate anything I tell you, dear. I must 
go. A whole battalion is coming out 

"I have not met any relatives. You know we are still on 
earth. Some of the boys who have folks in far places get 
leave to go and see them. But I feel that my job is right 
here. A while ago I lifted up a wounded color bearer, and 
together we kept the flag from touching the ground. That 
seemed to be his main idea. I held him until relief came 
and promised to wait in case he should come west. But he 
is to recover. A girl from the Red Cross hospital was work- 
ing alone, plucky as any one, regardless of the fact that a 
countercharge of glorious furies in horizon blue had cut her 
off from her friends. A shell struck her; and later she let 
me guide her into the Quiet. She looks like one of the 

McL girls. But she is dazed and can't tell her name. 

She'll be all right soon. 

* * ♦ 

"The Red Cross girl I brought across the line in not one 

of the McL s. But she is pretty and jolly and a bear 

for work. She is constantly with us on the field. Her folks 
live in Wisconsin, but she says they will have to wait until 
they come here before they learn that it is w r ell with her. 
They believe in the immortality of the soul. But proof of 
their belief scares them. Her name is Ann. Sometimes she 
hears her mother cry. Then it is hard for her. 

"Women and men work together in natural harmony. 
There are preferences and avoidances and some sweetheart- 
ing. But Cor the most part the business in hand occupies 
all of us. I do not know how it will be as we go on farther. 
This is a great receiving camp. It looks as though it had 
been chosen by engineers and established as a model can- 
tonment. I am impressed with the system that does not 
intrude itself as system. Yes. W T e dress and undress. 
There is a general commissary who issues our clothes in 
military fashion. T do not know how they are originally 
Obtained. At first the stuff felt differently from the material 
of the uniform 1 shed in Flanders. But now I do not notice 
anything peculiar about it. Maybe I am used to it, and have 
forgotten t lie old. 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE FORTY-THREE 

"There is no curse attached to anything, as far as I can 
find out. Laws are finely adjusted, and their principles are 
immutable, in the main. But God can change laws, even his 
own. There is nothing in all the worlds to handicap the 
big race the soul makes for perfection. We, here, are in the 
very beginning of it." 

You will note the repeated reference of these commu- 
nications from the son to his mother to the fact that he 
is really alive and not dead. Are we not pleased, then, 
to see that the teaching of our good clergymen is so 
strongly corroborated by direct witnesses? Note what 
the son here says to his mother: 

"None of my statements about less important matters are 
to be taken as certainties unless I quote our instructors. 
They may not be infallible, but I presume they are. But 
this is our big fact: I am really, vitally alive. All others 
who have passed the change called death are alive and pro- 
gressing toward fuller life. Harp on that string. Keep at 
it. Do not let your mind become discouraged or confused. 
Nothing that I can write you is of any importance compared 
to this. I am called away. 



"I know what you are up against. You are in for ridicule 
and the sort of publicity that is hardest to bear. But have 
[get] at it. Get the word across. Don't fix up my notes 
much. Let them smash away as they come right off the bat. 
They are not only to comfort the people there, but to relieve 
the boys here. They worry like the deuce over their folks. 
Some few who know what we are doing are after me all the 
time to help them get in touch with their own. They make 
constant efforts to communicate." 

Again, Mr. Newday, I wish to emphasis the fact that 
my efforts to convince you that your son is alive will 
avail nothing if you set your will against them. Neither 
could you have a communication from your son unless 
you are willing to receive it. Note what this young 
soldier boy says to his mother : 

"Don't argue. We cannot convince any one against his 



PAGE FORTY-FOUR ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

will. Let him believe or deny. You are only a messenger. 
One accepts the heartease you offer, or he does not. Per- 
haps by the time this page is printed, the light- which- is-to-be 
will be shining on the earth. Undoubtedly the mystery that 
befogs us is likely to be soon lifted. 



"Too bad that you are not able to convince Cooper's 
mother that he is all right. He is more than all right. And 
he may serve to illustrate a point I indicated recently. You 
know how weak he used to be, and dissipated? Rather 
worthless and all that? Well, he is one of the most esteemed 
men here. Of course, he proved that he had courage when 
he hopped out of the trench with that grenade and saved 
his company. I told you about it. But he has a quality, a 
kind of compassion for all men, that makes him tower above 
the rest of us. It is hard to take the measure of a man. 
There are so many bewildering standards. It's easier here. 

"Our use of the terms 'here' and 'there' is likely mislead- 
ing. At this stage, as I have explained, we are not separated 
from you ; I mean that we are not removed from the influ- 
ences and conditions of the earth. I do not know how to 
search for expressions that will convey the truth simply to 
all who may read these letters. If we are going to get to 
the people with this we must take some steps to interest a 
publisher. How would it do to see ? Better think it- 
over. I cannot advise. 



"We do not know when we are to be sent on to some other 

u remember we were once recalled when we had 

almost reached an important port of departure from this 

environment. The subject of these points of egress interests 

.•('ally. It seems that there are certain defined avenues 

of intercommunication. "We do not fly up and into some 

sphere. We travel by established channels. I am very 

anxious to find out just what this means, and I shall hope 

to let yon know. 

"Then, too, we may begin to count time by the thousand- 
year schedule. With the realization that yon will soon be 
witli ns, wo do not think to send yon descriptions of what 
yon • One thing we must not lose sight of: This 

is the land of the living, and the loved ones are safe. 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE FORTY-FIVE 

"Souls are being fused in these flames and purified. The 
bravery of men is applauded by the angels. I have seen 
them rush to welcome some little chap who has given his 
life to save others. That is the Christ quality — the highest 
form of love. 

"A lot of fellows in my tent were talking about the pecu- 
liar agony of suspense that mothers have to bear. Jack 
Wells spoke of that night in Gethsemane when the disciples 
slept. But somewhere in that garden was one who did not 
sleep. Mary watched all the dark night. Mothers are like 

that now. 

* * * 

"There is no method about interspace communication. The 
fuss of preparation is unnecessary and confusing. We do 
not need the material aids of paper and pencil, as our minds 
converse. I recommend the transcriptions because you are 
reporting these notes for a purpose. We want them as 
accurate as possible. Of course I get balled up. But we'll 
keep sight of the plan." 

That the science of this means of communicating with 
the dead is progressing and that it has come since the 
beginning of the world war, evidence is quite clear. 
This soldier boy in his communication to his mother 
says: 

"As we progress I find we are less inclined to criticize the 
efforts or condemn the failures of others. Something of truth 
must be in the minds of even the fakirs who try to material- 
ize spirits and set tables to jumping about a room. Primi- 
tive people were taught by means of crude spectacles. But 
now we have a way more suited to our developing intelli- 
gence. 

"Do not let us stop, to go over what I have said and 
correct inconsistencies. The way unrolls continually, and I 
get various angles of vision. I am not seeing much, as yet, 
that is so very different from the earth as you know it. I 
should say that the difference is chiefly in my new keenness 
of perception. 

* * * 

"Wells makes occasional journeys to the place where his 
folks live. I quote him, particularly, because you know him. 



PAGE FORTY-SIX ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAL 

When I ask him how it is out yonder, he says for me to wa 
and see for myself. This may illustrate the point I hav 
been trying to make. I asked him about the marriage of hi 
older sister and her husband. I heard that the married 
become incorporated in one body. That is not just as it 
seemed at first to be. The two who love and marry are one 
in spirit and act and think as one soul. But they are sep- 
arable in form and able to pursue their independent ways. 

"I have formed a friendship with Ann. She is as playful 
as a child, and I like her. But we are not mentally com- 
panionable. You remember a poem you liked by Miss Colson, 
about laughter in heaven? Well, there is laughter here all 
right. I could not repeat a joke or any special thing that 
might be labeled humorous that is said or done. But there 
is a kind of joyousness that finds expression in laughter. 

"Cooper has gone back to Blighty. I missed him and 
asked Jack where he had gone. I do not understand yet. 
Will let you know. Am excited over news. Must go. 
* # * 

"I have a delicate task here, mother. Cannot speak of it 
without higher authority. If I receive that, I know I can 
depend on your judgment and good taste. I have conferred 
with Wells, who is farther advanced than I am. Wait alone 
for this. 

"Mother, it is not a new thought, but it is true that all 
forms of life are created dual. We have spoken of the 
human and spiritual only briefly, because I am crassly 
ignorant, even yet. But nature is also two-sided: material 
and ethereal. Everything is duplicated — forest, stream, 
landscape. Does that fact not make my place of residence 
more tangible to you? I should have told you sooner if I 
had heard of it." 

In order that you may observe that I am working in 
harmony with the desire of those dead soldiers who on 
the other side are trying to comfort those on this side, 
and that I am taking the right course in coming to you 
to try to convince you that your son is alive, I invite 
your attention, Mr. Newday, to these words of this sol- 
dier boy to his mother : 

"Yes, I know what you are up against trying to get 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE FORTY-SEVEN 

across. Poor little mother! Her neighbors think she is a 
nut. But if you can get a few to try to write they will 
start things. Explain how simple it is. A place, a pencil, 
a pad of paper and a heart crying the name of a boy. That's 
all that is necessary. 

"I have permission to tell you that Cooper has, because of 
his understanding and compassion, been sent back home as 
an instructor. His body, sustained by some life principle 
which I cannot explain, has been all this time in a recon- 
struction hospital back of the French lines. You may see 
him with your own eyes. And you will know that any man 
who has crossed No Man's Land, and returned, has a mes- 
sage to the world from God. 



"Weils is hurrying on w r ith his preparations to go. I do 
not know whether I am to go with him or not. I rather 
hope I may. And yet I do not want to cut off our line of 
communication. I think after I leave this environment I 
shall have greater difficulty in communicating. As I have 
said before, I shall, perhaps, enter into less translatable con- 
ditions. The common speech may be inadequate. That, 
alone, may account for the futile messages transmitted 
through mediums. Still, the spirit is free to travel, and it 
is likely I may find a way to continue my letters to you and 
to give you such information as may be permitted. 

"You hope I w T ill not go, dear? Well, I may hang around 
here indefinitely. Many are coming in, however, and it looks 
as though we might be transferred. One reason makes me 
rather keen to go. Jack told me about his younger sister 
last night. She is, it seems, a tremendous favorite with him. 
I said I wished I could see her. And there she was ! A 
vision, really, in response to my wish. I don't believe heaven 
has a sweeter sight. I saw her plainly: dark-haired, blue- 
eyed, with a face of great brightness and fine color. 

"Up to this time that I am relating the circumstances to 
you it has seemed miraculous, out of the natural order of 
things, that I could conjure up this girl's likeness. But I 
now realize that faculty to be the commonest in the world. 
You are exercising it, now, as you think of me and of her. 
Here is a point, mother. Maybe you can elaborate it. You 
project your thought to any scene or you draw toward you 
whatever vision you will. 



PAGE FORTY-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

"It may be that the peculiar conditions of our work here 
make my judgments rather one-sided. I fancy in other loca- 
tions, America, for instance, the people who have come out 
must see many things in altogether different lights. They 
are dying around you every day. It should be perfectly sim- 
ple to communicate with them. We are dwelling on the mil- 
itary exodus for the reasons we have outlined. 

"Mother, I often think of the days when I was a little 
boy. How good and patient you have always been to me. 
Don't forget in all this striving to let other hearts have 
comfort that the same old love is in your boy's heart for you. 



"I got your wire calling my attention to the Scriptural 
statement that in heaven there is neither marriage nor giv- 
ing in marriage, and I do not know what to say. It seemed 
(until you gave me this jolt) that the Bible bears out every- 
thing that I have been able to tell you. Perhaps the chroni- 
cler got balled up in this particular quotation. For love and 
marriage are certainly in bud and flower there. I can see 
this fact with my own eyes. 

"Many things that I write you I gather from others, 
relying on you to weed out that which does not contribute 
to the big plan, or any flagrant inconsistency that may rob 
some soul of a crumb of comfort. Don't bother about much 
else. This is a message, and it requires haste. 



"Of course, there are false reports and reporters liere. Not 
makers of lies, so much, as natural dramatists who see all 
things in an exaggerated and spectacular form. Then, there 
are the symbolists who write the revelations. 

"Any critic would have me on the hip, and they will all 
be after you, if you can scare up a publisher to take this. 
And yet you will Likely find a world more ready to listen, 
openly, to such a message than it has ever boon before. 
Back in the human consciousness has always been a belief in 
Spiritual things. The belief has been mixed with the terror 
of the unknown and denied because of that fear. Now the 
hand of God draws his worlds so near that they can whisper 

to each other. 

I toper will take up his old life on earth, and his mother 

will hare her son. But he will not be the same. None of 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE FORTY-NINE 

those who go back will be the same. Angels, dressed in 
stained and faded khaki, will walk the familiar streets. 
Listen to them. 

"Dogs come and go freely, back and forth across the in- 
visible line. I am told this as a fact. They do not need 
to leave their natural bodies to associate with those who 
have died. They often follow their masters. Other animals 
have not quite these privileges, but after dissolution they 
appear here. I may not be clear. I often find a certain 
embarassment in saying what I, myself, would once have 
called bunk. But I guess they are true, all right." 



You will see, Mr. Newday, how anxious these soldier 
boys — 3 r ours among them no doubt — are, and how desir- 
ous of comforting the living who mourn and who are 
anxious to impress upon your mind that there is no 
death. To his mother this soldier boy soys : 

"I want to suggest to you to keep these notes entirely 
apart from anything else I write you. Do not make a big- 
book. Let it be only a few pages to hide in a mourner's 
sleeve. Call it a sleeve book, if you want to. I think that 
might convey an idea. But in any case, keep it free from 
subjects or speculations outside the main plan, which is : 
comfort for war-robbed humanity. Keep after that ! There 
is no death ! And don't let any attractive theory sidetrack 
you. The firing is continual and terrific. I must get on the 
job of guiding the boys through. They will come without 
fear. 

* * * 

"Jack Wells and I are very close friends. His sister's 
name is Alice, and she has grown up in the country beyond, 
where his folks live. It seems all reach or return to maturity, 
Youth blossoms and flowers, but does not decay. I can call 
up her vision at any time. But I want her near. 

"Christ walks among the wounded continually. The dying- 
see him, and the hurt are healed by his hand, many have 
told me, and several times I have felt him near. Once, for 
a moment, I saw him, I told you. 

"Preserve an unemotional mind, dear. Sanity and simplic- 
ity are essential to our purpose. Do not go on any tangent 



PAGE FIFTY ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

of description or undertake analyses. What is here is here. 
Some people will find what we have hoped to give them. 
Others must find comfort in different ways. 



"You have understood, haven't you, that I no longer stop 
and dictate these things to you? I talk to you as I perform 
my tasks, or lie at rest, or march along my ways. It is 
almost certain that we are to be ordered on within a few 
hours' time. Destination unknown. 

"But wherever it may be, I shall travel with eager curi- 
osity. I shall surely tell you all I can. It may be that one 
returns to this boundary for purposes of communication. 
That will develop later. 

"Take care of your health. You have a task that you must 
not fail to accomplish. You can bind up some of the most 
grievous wounds in the world. Keep your strength and go 
up and down the wailing places on the earth, and say and 
know: 'Thy son liveth'. That's your part. 

"We are passing through a land laid waste and yet tri- 
umphant. I felt immensely surprised to see in all its beauty 
one great cathedral that had been destroyed. The angel 
said that all such buildings of prayer and song are spiritual 
and beyond vandal desecration. The bricks will be restored 
to conform to the imperishable idea. I do not want to get 
metaphysical (in the bewildering way). I just want to say 
that I am improving in spiritual vision. When we started 
out before, you remember, I was only able to see the obvious : 
broken bodies of flesh and of stone. Today I see the immor- 
tal structures." 

The New York World recently published an interview 
with Bishop Fallows, of the Reformed Episcopal Church, 
in which he is quoted as saying : 

"Telepathy is an established fact. In recent years great 
strides have been made in the explanation of psychic phe- 
nomena and in the years to conic the science of communica- 
tion with tiie dead will be made a part of the curriculum of 
groat educational institutions. I have called the new science 
'Immortallsm' because it depends Cor its existence upon the 
Immortality of the soul, in which we all belieye, and the 
preservation of identity beyond the grave." 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE FIFTY-ONE 

And now, Mr. Newday, I think I have submitted 
ample evidence to sustain my position. I have here a 
great abundance of cumulative testimony, experience 
upon experience, of men in various walks of life, par- 
ticularly the testimony from some of our leading clergy- 
men. You will see that all these distinguished writers, 
scientists, savants, theologists, stand by the teaching 
which we have heard from our youth up, that the soul 
of man is immortal ; and believing this, we must believe 
that our dead beyond are alive, and it is wholly consist- 
ent, then, that they can communicate with the living. 
If the living cannot communicate with the dead, then 
our time-honored doctrine of the immortality of the soul 
must get a terrible shock, if not be completely upset. 
And you, Mr. Newday, as a consistent member of the 
church for many years, would not wish to repudiate 
that doctrine. I submit, then, that from ail this evi- 
dence we have much reason to rejoice that your son is 
alive and that you can communicate with him if ycu 
will do so. 

Me. Kewday : You have made a very strong presenta- 
tion of your side of the case, Mr. Psychic. I must con- 
cede the fact that you offer the testimony and experi- 
ences of some of the greatest of modern scientists, sav- 
ants and clergymen; and this together with the doctrine 
which all the churches, Catholic and Protestant, have 
taught and teach, that the soul is immortal and cannot 
die, makes out a very strong case. I cannot escape that 
fact. But before I reach a final conclusion, I must hear 
the argument of our friend, Mr. Lightbearer. 



CHAPTER III 

LIGHTBEARER'S ARGUMENT 

The testimony and the argument presented by Mr. 
Psychic is very subtle and calculated to convince almost 
every mind except the mind of him who insists on squar- 
ing all teachings by the great truths which are definitely 
and conclusively settled. 

In the very outset I perceive that I am confronted 
with the public opinion, educated largely against my 
position. In this connection we are reminded of the 
trite but truthful saying of the poet : 

"Truth forever on the scaffold, 
Wrong forever on the throne ; 
But that scaffold sways the future 

And within the dim unknown 
Stands the form of Christ the Savior, 
Keeping watch around his own." 

Truth ultimately must prevail and I am confident that 
truth in God's due time will prevail and error will be 
forever annihilated. 

My abiding faith in Christ Jesus and in the Word of 
God, which is the truth, makes me bold in presenting 
evidence against the theory of communicating with the 
dead. I am confident that the proof which I present 
will convince every reverent mind believing the Bible 
to be God's Word of Truth. Every point that I can 
conscientiously concede I will and do concede, in order 
that the issue may be clearly drawn. 

In the beginning all of us agreed that the Bible is 
God's Word of truth revealed to men for his instruction. 

I agree with you that man's greatest desire is that he 
might have life everlasting, dwelling continually in a 
state of happiness. All of us must agree and do agree, 
I believe, to the truthfulness of the Biblical statement 

53 



PAGE FIFTY-FOUR V 7 7 TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

concerning the obtaining of life everlasting through 
Christ Jesus, that "there is none other name under 
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved". 
—Acts 4:12. 

I will concede that the gentlemen whose testimony 
has here been presented are honorable, men. I do not 
call in question their veracity or honesty, nor is it neces- 
sary for me so to do. If I cannot explain and account 
for their testimony in the light of revealed truths as 
contained in the Word of God, then my argument 
must fall flat. I invite you, Mr. Newday, and all who 
hear me, to suspend final judgment upon this question 
until you have heard me through; and then if you can 
truthfully say that you believe the teachings of the Word 
of God, you will have-to say it is impossible to commu- 
nicate with the dead. 

I agree that the world war that has caused millions 
in a short time to go down in death has greatly increased 
the desire of the living to know of the state of the dead, 
and that this situation has been seized upon for the 
purpose of foisting upon the people the theory that their 
dead loved ones are alive and that they can communi- 
cate with them. If the living can talk with the dead, 
then all the people should know it, and it should not be 
sary to conduct a paid propaganda in order to 
teach them. On the other hand, if from a fair consider- 
i of all the evidence we should find that the living 
cannot talk with the dead, but that the testimony pro- 
duced in support of the contention is deceptive and mis- 
leading and destructive of faith in God's Word, then the 
people should be acquainted with these facts and nil 
honesi people, without regard to creed or denomination, 
ought to be willing to herald these facts broadcast among 
their fellow men. 

I most emphatically agree with you, Mr. Psychic, that 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE FIFTI-FIVE 

according to the testimony of all these witnesses the 
ability of the living to communicate with the dead de- 
pends upon the one important question : Is the soul of 
man immortal? In other phrase, your argument must 
stand or fall upon the truthfulness or falsity of the 
theory of the immortality of the soul. If it is true that 
every man has inherent immortality, then there is a basis 
for your argument ; but if that contention is false, then 
there is no basis for your argument, and your argument, 
of course, must fail. It is of first importance, then, that 
we determine what the soul is; and determining that, 
whether it is mortal or immortal. Let the Bible be the 
final arbiter upon this question. 

WHAT IS THE SOUL? 

It is true that Catholic and Protestant clergymen for 
centuries have taught the people that the soul is the 
divine part of man which cannot die and that therefore 
there is no death of the soul. This is not supported, 
however, by the Scriptures, which read : "The Lord God 
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of lives ; and man became a 
living soul". (Genesis 2:7) The word soul means mov- 
ing, breathing, sentient being; i. e., a living creature 
that possesses the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, 
smell. It will be conceded that the dust out of which 
Jehovah formed the body was not immortal, nor did it 
have intelligence. It must be further conceded that the 
breath of lives which God breathed into the nostrils of 
that body did not constitute the soul ; but that the body, 
perfectly formed, and the breath which Jehovah then 
placed in its organism together formed a living, moving, 
sentient being, which we call a soul. Every creature 
that breathes is a soul. No creature possesses a soul. If 
the breath is separated from the body, which stops the 



PAGF FIFTY-SIS ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

action of the lungs and the circulation of the blood, 
death results. Thus did God form the first man, from 
whom the whole human race sprang, and we have a 
clear and positive statement in the Scriptures that the 
first man is of the earth, earthy, and not divine, not 
immortal. — 1 Corinthians 15 : 47. 

The Word of God speaks of beasts as souls : ff Levy a 
tribute unto the Lord of the men of war which went 
out to battle : one soul of five hundred, both of the per- 
sons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the 
sheep". — Numbers 31: 28; Genesis 1: 20, 30, margin. 

Man's preeminence over the beast is in life, not in 
death. They both die alike. "For that which befalleth 
the sons of men befalleth beasts ; even one thing befalleth 
them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they 
have all one breath ; so that a man hath no preeminence 
above a beast : for all is vanity. All go unto one place ; 
all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." — Eccle- 
siastcs 3 : 19, 20. 

THE GREAT DECEPTION 

That we may get the proper setting of this subject 

and view it from a rational standpoint, we must take a 

glimpse at the history of the human race. For 

centuries the whole earth has been a playhouse and all 

the people players. The great drama opened in Eden, 

the garden of God — perfect in its appointments — with 

m and Eve, the perfect pair, in possession, with 

authority to multiply and fill the earth with a happy 

race of people and establish a kingdom among men. 

They were perfect human beings, but without experi- 

Lucifer, an angel of great beauty and wisdom. 

placed in Eden as an overseer of this perfect human 

pair. Observing that Jehovah bad granted authority to 

to establish a kingdom, Lucifer sought to steal the 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE FIFTY-SEVEN 

inheritance of man. God's prophet describes him in 
Eden as a wise and beautiful creature, and tells how he 
sinned and was degraded and became Satan, thus : "Thou 
hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious 
stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the 
diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sap- 
phire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the 
workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was pre- 
pared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou 
wast the anointed cherub that covereth [officially ap- 
pointed to act as man's overseer] ; and I have set thee 
so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou 
hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of 
fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that 
thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By 
the multitude of thy merchandise, they have filled the 
midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned ; there- 
fore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain 
of God ; and I will destroy thee, covering cherub, from 
the midst of the stones of fire."— Ezekiel 28 : 13 - 19. 

Ambitious for a kingdom of his own, Lucifer reasoned 
thus : I am far greater than man. Why has not God 
granted me an exclusive dominion? Jealousy was in 
his heart and he determined to bring man under his 
control. He meditated a usurpation of God's authority, 
thus : "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne 
above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount 
of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will 
ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like 
the Most High". (Isaiah 14:13,14) Because of this 
ambition, Lucifer lost the favor of Jehovah and was 
thereafter designated as "that old serpent, which is the 
devil, and Satan" (Eevelation 20:2) — the author and 
instigator of all wickedness that has cursed mankind. 

God instructed Adam and Eve that they must not 



PAGE FIFTY-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

partake of certain fruit in Eden, saying to them, "In 
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". 
(Genesis 2:17) Satan deceived mother Eve by con- 
vincing her that God was lying and by this means under- 
took to deprive her and her husband of their just rights 
and privileges. To Eve he said: "God doth know that 
in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, 
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Ye shall 
not surely die!' (Genesis 3 : 4, 5) This was the first lie 
ever told and from it sprang all other lies. So says 
Jesus. — See John 8 : 44. 

This disobedience of Eve and of Adam, who joined her 
in the transgression, brought swiftly upon them the 
judgment of Jehovah. They were sentenced to death 
and driven from Eden. In pronouncing this judgment, 
Jehovah, addressing Satan and the perfect human pair, 
said: "I will piit enmity between thee and the woman, 
and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy 
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel". (Genesis 3:15) 
Tims God definitely declared that there would be two 
seeds and that there would be deadly enmity between 
those until the seed of the serpent, Satan, should perish. 
The seed of the woman here mentioned is the Christ, 
the Messiah — Jesus the head and his faithful body mem- 
bers, constituting his bride. The seed of the serpent 
consists of his dupes and emissaries, whom he has used 
to defraud, deceive and blind the people for centuries, 

IMMORTAL SOULS? 

Immortal means not subject to death ; possessed of 
an indestructible life. Therefore one who is immortal 
cannol die. Did not God speak the truth when he said 
to Adam: "Thou shalt surely die"? Did he not speak 
the truth wlirn he sentenced man to death, saying to 
him, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE FIFTY-NINE 

thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou 
taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re- 
turn"? (Genesis 3: 19) God did not sentence him to 
pass on to another world. But you, Mr. Psychic, will 
say that sentence was on his body, which is a mere 
shell for the soul, and that when he dies he merely 
sheds the shell; and you cite the clergy and the savants 
as your authority. I submit, Mr. Newday, that since 
we have agreed to take the Bible as arbiter, let us hear 
Jehovah answer the question. He says : "The soul that 
sinneth, it shall die". (Ezekiel 18:4, 20) "What man 
is he that liveth, and shall not see death ? shall he deliver 
his soul from the hand of the grave?" (Psalm 89: 48) 
If the soul be immortal, then God himself cannot de- 
stroy it, and we know that God has power to destroy the 
soul. Jesus is authority for this: "Fear him which is 
able to destroy both soul and body". (Matthew 10 : 28) 
There is not a single Scripture in the Bible that war- 
rants any one in saying that the soul is immortal. 

You will observe that all the testimony offered here 
by Mr. Psychic is based upon the conclusion that the 
soul is immortal and he emphasizes the question of im- 
mortality more than any other one thing. With all due 
deference to him as a devotee of this theory, I must 
say that the conclusion of the immortality of the soul is 
based upon Satan's lie and is wholly unsupported by 
anything else except the lie of the adversary. And from 
the time since he told this lie, he has sought to deceive 
mankind and blind'men to the real truths of God's Word 
and he has brought forth all kinds of deceptions for the 
very purpose of blinding the people. — 2 Corinthians 4:4. 

Satan himself is not immortal, the Lord declaring that 
in his own due time Satan shall be destroyed. (Hebrews 
2:14) Who, then, has immortality? The Scriptures 
answer: God "only hath immortality". (1 Timothy 



PAGE SIXTY i i I TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

6 : 16) He is the self -existing one, from everlasting to 
everlasting, and not subject to death. "When Jesus was 
on earth, he said : " As the Father hath life in himself ; 
so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself". 
(John 5: 26) And at his resurrection he was exalted 
and granted immortality. — Philippians 2 : 9 - 11 ; Reve- 
lation 1 : 18. 

All the human race was mortal, i. e., subject to death. 
"As in Adam all die." (1 Corinthians 15 : 22) Immor- 
tality is offered as a special reward to be granted only 
to those who are faithful followers in Jesus' footsteps. 
"Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a 
crown of life." "Seek for . . . immortality." (Revela- 
tion 2 : 10 ; Romans 2 : 7) A man does not seek what he 
already possesses. "This mortal must put on immor- 
tality" was written concerning the new creature who is 
begotten to the heavenly nature and is a follower of 
Jesus, and the statement has no application to man in 
general. — 1 Corinthians 15 : 53. 

Since it is claimed that the dead are able to commu- 
nicate with the living, then of course it must follow that 
the dead are conscious. In fact, all the experiences 
related by the witnesses whose testimony Mr. Psychic has 
bere offered is to the effect that death does not mean 
death but merely a "passing" to the other side of the 
line, consciousness still being maintained and a full 
memory of everything that had transpired in the past. 

If this contention be true, then Cod did not mean 
what he said when he sentenced man to death and fold 
him be must return to the dust, Subsequent Scriptures, 
however, prove that Cod did mean what be said and that 
has returned to the dusl and is not conscious. We 
: '"In death there is no remembrance of thee: in the 
grave who shall give thee thanks?" (Psalm 6 : 5) "Wilt 
1bou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE SIXTY-ONE 

and praise thee? Shall thy lovingkindness be declared 
in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?" 
(Psalm 88:10,11) "The dead praise not the Lord, 
neither any that go down into silence." — Psalm 115 : 17. 

Furthermore, the Scriptures clearly show that when a 
man dies he stops breathing, ceases to think, and returns 
to the dust. "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to 
his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." — 
Psalm 146 : 4. 

He is so completely dead and unconscious that he 
knows nothing. "The living know that they shall die : 
but the dead know not any thing." The dead have no 
knowledge, they are not wise, and they do not work 
where they go. "Whatsoever thy hand fmdeth to do, 
do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, 
nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou 
goest." — Ecclesiastes 9 : 5, 10. 

Man perishes like the beast. "Nevertheless man being 
in honor abideth not : he is like the beasts that perish/" 
(Psalm 49:12) When Jesus was on earth, men had 
been dying for four thousand years and he said that up 
to that time "no man [had] ascended up to heaven". 
(John 3 : 13) And furthermore, Jesus said that all the 
dead are in their graves, unconscious, knowing nothing. 
"Marvel not at this : for the hour is coming, in the which 
all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
come forth."— John 5 : 28, 29. 

The inspired Apostle Paul, speaking of the dead, re- 
fers to them as asleep in Jesus, unconscious, knowing 
nothing. "I would not have you to be ignorant, breth- 
ren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow 
not, even as others which have no hope. For if we be- 
lieve that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also 
which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this 
we say unto you by the word of the Lord., that we which 



PAGE SIXTY-TWO ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall 
not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord him- 
self shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the 
voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : and 
the dead in Christ shall rise first."— 1 Thess. 4: 13 - 16. 

In all the Bible there is no doctrine so plainly and 
emphatically taught as that concerning the resurrection 
of the dead. If Mr. Psychic's theory is correct, that the 
dead are alive and progressing from one sphere to 
another, then the doctrine of the resurrection is both 
untrue and a farce, and upsets the entire teaching of 
Christianity. Of the resurrection we will have more 
to say as we progress. 

The eminent witnesses from whose testimony Mr. 
Psychic quotes at length claim to believe that Jehovah 
God is the great First Cause. They admit that Jesus 
came down from heaven, was made flesh and dwelt 
among men ; that he spake as never man spake ; that he 
lived on earth; that he died, rose from the dead, and 
ascended into heaven. They quote from the Bible as 
God's "Word of truth, thereby admitting the authenticity 
of the Scriptures. Then let their case stand or fall by 
the Bible. They cannot blow both hot and cold. 

But it is argued by our opponents that the witnesses 
on their side are of great eminence in the world. Look 
at them, they say, such men as Dr. Hyslop, Sir Arthur 
Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge, Bishop Fallows, the 
Rev. Fielding Ould, the late Archdeacon Y\ ]lberforce,etc. 
And we admit that they are eminent men of the world. 

Then, argues Mr. Psychic, surely it cannot be possible 
that these eminent scholars are telling falsehoods and 
1 lying to deceive the people by making them believe that 
!' dead men can lip tables and make them 
walk, can cause the hand to write, and can speak through 
mediums or even communicate direct! 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE SIXTY-THBEE 

How the people are impressed by such testimony is 
illustrated by an incident which has come to my atten- 
tion and which is similar to that related by Mr. Psychic : 

The father of Mr. A had been dead a number of years. 
He was met by a spiritist, who said to him, "Mr. A, 
would you like to talk to your father ?" Mr. A replied : 
"'Why, my father is dead". "Yes," responded his ques- 
tioner, "but you can communicate with the dead." Mr. 
A expressed his unbelief. Then his questioner said: 
"Mr. A, are you willing to give the matter a trial and let 
me demonstrate to you that you can talk to your father ? 
If you will go to a certain number on a certain street 

and call for Mrs. and say to her you have come 

to communicate with one of your dead friends, but do 
not tell her whom ; and then put her to the test, you will 
see if she can call up your dead father." Mr. A assents. 
He calls on the woman, who is known as a spiritualistic 
medium. He says to her : "I came here for the purpose 
of communicating with a dead friend. I am a skeptic, 
but I came at the instance of my friend and I want 
you to prove to me whether or not I can talk to some 
one who is dead." The medium replies: "If you will 
do what I tell you, I will make an effort to put you into 
communication with the one with whom you would like 
to talk. The conditions I impose upon you are these: 
First, you must sit quietly in that chair. You must not 
resist me with the power of your will, but be entirely 
submissive and willing to be convinced. You must then 
center your mind upon the person with whom you would 
like to talk." 

Mr. A agrees to the conditions and carries them out, 
sitting quietly, being willing to be convinced and, there- 
fore, submitting his will. In a short time the medium 
announces the presence of some one who wishes to talk 
to him. Mr. A listens and presently he hears a voice 



PAGE SIXTY-FOUR ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

speaking to him and he recognizes it as the voice of his 
father, long since dead. The father then relates to him 
certain events that transpired in Mr. A's boyhood and 
also tells him other things which Mr. A subsequently 
proves from other evidence to be correct. Mr. A has been 
a Christian up to this time, thoroughly believing in the 
Bible. Now he goes away, however, convinced that his 
father is alive and not dead and is able to talk with him. 
Mr. Psychic would accept this as conclusive evidence 
that the dead man was actually communicating with his 
father. And he will ask, Did not Mr. A. hear his father's 
voice? We answer no, because his father was dead and 
the Scriptures conclusively prove that dead men do not 
talk. Can it be denied that Mr. A heard a voice? We 
answer no ; nor will there be any attempt to deny that. 
We admit that Mr. A, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and 
2very other witness offered who claims to have heard 
voices did in fact hear them ; and we will further admit 
that these witnesses are testifying to what they believe 
to be the truth. We emphatically deny, however, that 
they heard the voices of, or in any other manner com- 
municated with, the spirits of dead men. On the con- 
trary, the voices they heard were the voices of demons, 
who never were men, and their communication is with 
demons and not the spirits of men. And Ave gladly 
assume the burden of proof upon this proposition. It 
will be seen that these demons are the allies of Satan, 
for centuries under his domination and direction, and 
that they aid him in his further attempt to foist upon 
humanity his first lie. There is no death. 

ORIGIN OF THE DEMONS 

From the time Adam and Eve were driven out of 
Eden until now there lias been war between the seed of 
the woman and the seed of the serpent, Satan, the devil. 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? SIXTY-FIVE 

Satan was deprived of his position as overseer of man. 
Adam having lost his dominion, there was none in the 
earth in authority. Horrified at the results of Lucifer's 
wrongful course, the angels of heaven (sons of God) 
desired to uplift man, and God permitted certain ones 
of them to undertake the task. (Hebrews 2:5; Genesis 
6:1-5) These angels possessed the power to materialize 
in human form and were permitted to assume dominion 
over the affairs of earth. They likewise had power to 
dematerialize. Satan determined that he would not be 
thwarted in his purpose of opposing Jehovah. He had 
become a liar and the father of lies and now, with a 
malignant heart, he set about to seduce these angels, his 
former companions in glory, and through them to re- 
tain control over man. He injected into the minds of 
these spirit beings the thought to take wives from among 
the daughters of men, which they did, thereby leaving 
their own loftier estate. Thus Satan caused the angels 
to sin and fall. The offspring resulting from this un- 
holy alliance filled the earth with violence and God 
announced his determination to destroy all flesh. He so 
advised Noah and then brought on the deluge. 

Noah and his family, eight in all. not having been 
contaminated by these evil ones, received favor in God's 
sight and were saved in the ark which Noah had built 
at the direction of Jehovah. The great flood destroyed 
all fleshly beings save those that were in the ark. The 
angelic beings, however, exercising their power to dema- 
terialize, were not destroyed. What became of them? 
The Bible answers that they were restrained of their 
liberty and confined in the darkness of the atmosphere 
near the earth.* This is exactly what is claimed by 
Mr. Psychic. "God spared not the angels that sinned, 
but cast them down to tartarus [mistranslated hell] and 
* See letter on page 39. 



PAGE SIXTY-SIX ? ? ? TALCING WITH THE DEAD 

delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved 
unto judgment." (2 Peter 2:4) "The angels which 
kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, 
he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness 
unto the judgment of the great day." ( Jude 6) In this 
condition they were to be restrained until the judgment 
day, the inference being that at the judgment day they 
would exercise greater power than at any time since the 
flood. At no time since the flood have they been per- 
mitted to materialize in human form. We here assert 
that the judgment of the fallen angels is at hand and, 
therefore, this explains why they exercise so much more 
power now than at any other time. Of this we will speak 
later. Since the time of the deluge they have had power 
to communicate with the human race only through the 
instrumentality of willing mediums. 

This is in exact accord with the testimony of Dr. 
Hyslop, whose words we quote : "The only means of com- 
municating with the dead has been found to be a living 
organism capable of connecting the two worlds". 

The communication of man with these evil spirits 
impersonating the dead is not a new thing. It has per- 
i since the flood. When God made the Law Cove- 
nant with the nation of Israel, as a safeguard against 
these demons he provided in the law that any one who 
would consult a medium concerning the dead should be 
put to death. (Exodus 22: 18; Leviticus 19: 31; 20: 6, 
27) An attempt to communicate with them was de- 
clared by Jehovah as an abomination in his sight. "There 
shall not be found among you ... a witch or a charmer 
or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a medium or a 
omancer, U>v all that do these things are an abomina- 
tion unto the Lord." — Deuteronomy 18 : 10 - 12. 

- ill, the first king of Israel, had a stance with a me- 
dium who protended to call up Samuel, much as is done by 



TALKING WITE THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE SIXTY-SEVEN 

what the eminent witnesses above mentioned have related 
in modern times. (1 Samuel 28: 7-20) Samuel was a 
good prophet. He died. Saul, the king of Israel, 
became evil and God withdrew his favor from him. The 
king then directed his servants to find him a witch or 
spiritualistic medium with whom to consult. He was 
directed to a woman living in a cave at Endor. 

It will be noted that the one selected as the medium 
for communication between Saul and the dead prophet 
was a woman. It will be noticed that in nearly every 
instance of testimony cited by Mr. Psychic the medium 
has been a woman; and in that testimony Sir Arthur 
Conan Doyle says: "Nearly every woman is an unde- 
veloped medium". And here again we remind you that 
Satan began his nefarious work by using a woman, 
deceiving her, and through her caused the fall of man. 
King Saul in consulting a medium departed from the 
plain teachings that the Lord had given him through 
his Word. 

Knowing that it was his duty to put to death all such 
mediums, as provided by the law; and knowing that if 
she recognized him as the king of Israel she would not 
operate for him, Saul disguised, himself and then went 
to the cave to see the woman. Evidently the demons 
revealed to this medium that the man who stood before 
her was the king of Israel, and horrified, she exclaimed : 
"Why hast thou come to take my life ?" Saul then ad- 
mitted to her that he was the king, but promised to 
preserve her life if she would obey him and call up 
Samuel, the dead prophet. The seance then took place. 
The demons caused to pass before her mind a vision of 
a man rising from the earth and the witch cried out; 
and being inquired of by Saul as to what she saw, she 
said she beheld an old man rising, wearing a mantle, 
the description being like that of Samuel the prophet. 



PAGE SIXTY-EIQHI ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

San I fell prone upon the earth and then the medium pro- 
;I to tell him that the message from Samuel was 
that on the morrrow he should engage in battle with the 
Philistines, that he would be defeated, and that the king 
ar-d his sons would be killed. 

Again quoting from the testimony offered, as given by 
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: "We have, unhappily, to deal 
with, absolute cold-blooded lying on the part of wicked 
oi mischievous intelligences. Every one who has inves- 
tigated the matter has. I suppose, met with examples of 
willful deception, which occasionally are mixed up with 
true communications". 
Surely the demons through the witch at Endor tricked 
Saul on this occasion and lied to both the witch and 
Saul. Samuel was dead and therefore could not arise. 
- 'oses the fact that the battle between Saul 
Listines did not take place the next day, but 
was fought some days later and that not all of his sons 
were killed; hut on the contrary, two of them survived 
and lived for years. 

From the days of the flood until now these evil spirits 

or demons have been unable to communicate with any 

one who is unwilling x submit to their influence; and 

• why, in ti i incident above recorded, Mr. A 

' to remain quiet, not to resist with his will, 

but e g to be taught and to concentrate his mind 

with whom he would like to speak. This 

contention is further borne out by the testimony offered 

by V. . ic to the effed that only the willing can be 

Don't argue. We cannot convince any one 

Brill. Let him believe or deny." 

While Bpiritista — those believing in communication 

with the dead— try to get away from the fact that human 

d or possessed by evil spirits or demons, 

-takable that such is the ease, and even 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE SIXTY-NINE 

they in their argument admit that to be true. We quote 
from Dr. Hyslop's elaborate work entitled, "Contact With 
the Other World" : 

"Experience has shown that mischievous personalities are 
desirous of concealing instead of revealing their identity. In 
default of evidence to the contrary, we should have to accept 
the orthodox verdict of medicine and psychiatry, which ex- 
plain obsessions as cases of dual or multiple personality, 
hysteria, or some forms of insanity. . . . But in all cases it 
represents an influence foreign to the organism instead of 
within it, due to the action of a discarnate spirit or spirits, 
whether the influence be voluntary or involuntary. ... In 
a number of cases, persons whose condition would ordinarily 
be described as due to hysteria, dual, or multiple personality, 
dementia precox, paranoia, or some other form of mental 
disturbance, showed unmistakable indications of invasion 
by foreign and discarnate agencies:' 

If these wise scientists would only take the words of 
Jesus they would see and understand the matter at once. 
When the great Master was on earth demons possessed 
human beings, causing insanity, and they have done so 
ever since. Accounts of such experiences are found in 
Matthew 9:32,33; 10:8; 12:22; Mark 5:1-20; 
9: 17 -27; Luke 9:38-42. 

These demons have minds superior to human minds 
and doubtless are perfect in memory. Having existed, 
as demons, since the time of the flood, they are familiar 
with the events of earth and this explains why one such 
can impersonate a human being who has been dead a 
long while. Sir Conan Doyle cites the instance of one 
who named himself Manton and who is said to have died 
in 1677 and who was Oliver Cromwell's chaplain. It 
is an easy matter for a demon, familiar with the life of 
Cromwell and those living at his time, to come forward 
and produce such evidence and thus overreach a mind 
that is willing to be convinced. 

Mr. A above mentioned did not hear the voice of his 



FARE SEVENTY ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

father but he heard the voice of one of these demons, 
who being familiar with his father's life and history was 
able to produce facts having a tendency to convince the 
son that his father was still living; and the son, being 
ignorant of who these demons are, fell a ready victim to 
the delusion that his father yet lives. 

Thus it will be seen that these demons who inhabit the 
atmosphere around the earth communicate to willing 
mediums messages of divers kinds, some claiming to be 
good and some evil. Naturally you ask, What would be 
the motive of these demons or evil spirits in thus com- 
municating with the human race and constantly repre- 
senting to them that the dead are alive and that living 
human beings are actually communicating with their 
dead friends ? This question is important and demands 
careful consideration and when properly answered clari- 
fies the whole subject and exposes the fraudulent pur- 
poses of Satan and his allies. 

We refer you again to the quotations from numerous 
letters offered by Mr. Psychic, which state in substance 
that a propaganda by the spirits is now in progress, and 
they repeatedly say to the medium: "This is our big 
fact: I am really, vitally alive. All others who have 
ed the change called death are alive and progressing 
toward fuller life. Harp on that string. Keep at it. 
Nothing that I can write you is of any importance com- 
pared to this.-' 

We here emphasize again the point that from the time 
of the disruption in Eden, Satan, the great adversary of 
God and righteousness, has vigorously put forth his 
efforts to bolster up his lie that the dead are not dead but 
alive. The real motive of Satan and the demons is to 
ive the people concerning God's plan of redemption 
and blessing for mankind through Christ. The Scrip- 
tures state that "there is none other name . . . whereby 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE SEVENTY-ONE 

we must be saved"; but if Mr. Psychic's theory is cor- 
rect, then the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ 
were unnecessary and there is no salvation through him. 
St. Paul says that Satan "hath blinded the minds of 
them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious 
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine 
unto them". (2 Corinthians 4:4) In order to appreci- 
ate this point it is necessary to examine briefly the 

PLAN OF REDEMPTION 

The disobedience in Eden brought upon man the con- 
demnation of death. The perfect man and woman in 
Eden did not beget or bring forth children. It was only 
after they had been driven from Eden and were under- 
going the legal judgment of death, which was being en- 
forced by their being compelled to eat of the impure 
food that the unfinished earth produced, that man exer- 
cised the power of producing children. It necessarily 
follows, then, that all of the offspring of man would be 
imperfect, and for this reason the Psalmist said: "Be- 
hold, I was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother 
conceive me". (Psalm 51 : 5) And for the same reason 
St. Paul wrote : "By one man sin entered into the world, 
and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, for 
that all have sinned". — Eomans 5 : 12. 

Approximately twenty centuries after the fall of man, 
Cod called to Abraham, who had manifested a disposi- 
tion of righteousness, and promised him that in his seed 
all the families of the earth should be blessed. (Genesis 
12: 3) Thereafter God reiterated this promise, binding 
it by his oath. (Genesis 22 : 18) St. Paul says : "By two 
immutable things [God's word and oath], in which it 
was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong 
consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the 
hope set before us". (Hebrews 6:18) The seed of 



PAGE SEVENTY-TWO ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

promise made prominent throughout the Scriptures, be- 
ing the offspring of the Abrahamic Covenant as typified 
by his wife, Sarah (Galatians 4: 22 - 25), is the seed of 
the woman against which God foretold Satan would war 
even unto the end. This seed is the Christ, Jesus the 
head and the members of his body who loyally and faith- 
fully follow him even unto death and who have the prom- 
ise of participating in the first resurrection. St. Paul 
in his argument says: "Now to Abraham and his seed 
were the promises made : He saith not, And to seeds, as 
of many ; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ 
[Messiah]. For as many of you as have been baptized 
into Christ have put on Christ. And if ye be Christ's, 
then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the 
promise.'' (Galatians 3 : 16, 27, 29) "He is the head of 
the body, the church." (Colossians 1:18) "God . . . 
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him [Christ 
Jesus] to be the head over all things to the church, 
which is his body." — Ephesians 1 : 22, 23. 

Many pictures in the Old Testament foretold the com- 
ing of the Christ, the Messiah. Satan for a time thought 
that the seed was a fleshly one. For this reason he 
caused Cain to kill Abel. (1 John 3:12) When the 
promise was made to Abraham, Satan made an attempt 
to have Sarah, his wife, debauched, that the seed might 
be destroyed. When God's favor was shown to David, 
Satan sought to have him killed, believing him to be the 
E < (1. When Jesus came to earth, Satan and the demons 
recognized him as the promised seed. ( Mark 5:6-8; 
Acts 19: 15) Satan caused the persecution of the Lord 
and his death by inciting the Pharisees — the clergy ele- 
ment of that time — against him. 

Redemption from the judgment of death must precede 
the selection of the seed, because no one under the con- 
demnation could God call to be associated with Christ. 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE SEVENTY-THREE! 

God promised redemption through his prophet, saying: 
"I will ransom them from the power of the grave ; I will 
redeem them from death : death, I will be thy plagues ; 
grave, I will be thy destruction; repentance shall 
be hid from mine eyes". (Hosea 13 : 14) It will be noted 
here that the promise of redemption is from death and 
from' the grave and there is no intimation that the dead 
have gone to the spirit world. 

Adam, a perfect man, had sinned and lost for him- 
self and all of his offspring the right to life everlasting. 
Justice demanded the forfeiture of that life. While God 
cannot deny himself and therefore could not reverse the 
judgment of death against man, he could consistently 
provide a plan of redemption whereby another perfect 
man, exactly equal to Adam, could die and thus provide 
the redemptive price for Adam and his offspring. There 
was none perfect among the human race, because all were 
the children of Adam. "]^"one of them can by any means 
redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." 
—Psalm 49: 7. 

In the creation of all things the Logos was Jehovah's 
active agent ; and Jehovah offered to him the opportunity 
of coming to earth, and redeeming the human race. 
The Logos [Jesus] was made flesh and dwelt among 
men. (John 1: 14) He was born of a woman but not 
begotten by a man. Therefore, in the language of the 
Apostle, he was "holy, harmless, un defiled, separate from 
sinners". (Hebrews 7:26) And when he grew to man- 
hood's estate he was the exact counterpart of the perfect 
man Adam prior to his violation of God's law. 

RANSOM SACRIFICE 

The whole plan of redemption upon which rests solely 
the hope of man for life everlasting depends upon the 
great ransom sacrifice. Jehovah has graciously provided 



PAGE SEVENTY-FOUB ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

a measuring rod by which every doctrine can be meas- 
ured to determine its truth or falsity. The measuring 
rod or key by which this is determined is the great ran- 
som sacrifice. Any doctrine out of harmony with it is 
false. Sir Conan Doyle quotes this Scripture: "Believe 
not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of 
God : because many false prophets are gone out into the 
world". (1 John 4:1) It will be observed from his 
testimony offered that he quotes only a part of the text. 
Had he examined the context, he would have seen that 
this has no reference to the spirits of dead men. The 
Apostle further states : "We [the apostles] are of God : he 
that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the 
spirit of truth, and the spirit of error". (1 John 4:1-6) 
When we are invited to try the spirits it means for us 
to measure the doctrines offered in support of any theory 
and not to communicate with some demons; and if we 
understand the plan of God, with this absolutely perfect 
measuring rod we can determine whether the spirit (doc- 
trine or teaching) is of truth or of error, whether of God 
or of the devil. We try the doctrines by measuring them 
according to God's perfect standard given in his Word. 
The theory of the living communicating with the dead 
is a positive denial of the ransom. Sir Conan Doyle 
admits as much and does not hesitate to deny the ran- 
som. He says : "Christianity must change or must per- 
ish. . . . One can see no justice in a vicarious sacrifice, 
nor in the God who could be placated by such means. 
Above all, many cannot understand such expressions as 
the 'redemption from sin', 'cleansed by the blood of the 
Lamb/ and so forth. . . . Again, too much seemed to 
be made of Christ's death. It is no uncommon thing 
to die for an idea. Every religion has equally had its 
martyrs. Men die continually for their convictions. 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE SEVENTY-FIVE 

Thousands of our lads are doing it at this instant in 
France." 

Here is one witness who boldly denies the merit of 
Christ's death; and this alone should stamp his testi- 
mony as unworthy of consideration. Falsus in uno, 
falsus in omnibus — i. e., false in one thing, false in 
everything. I appeal to you, Mr. Newday, and every 
Christian who claims to love God and the Lord Jesus and 
to believe the Bible, to consider carefully this point, 
which is really decisive of the whole question. If the 
theory of communicating with the dead is accepted, the 
vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ must be rejected; 
and if rejected, Christianity falls and the Bible falls 
with it. 

Speaking of Christ, Sir Conan Doyle says: "His spe- 
cial care is the earth. He came down upon it at a time 
of great earthly depravity — a time when the world was 
almost as wicked as it is now, in order to give the people 
the lesson of an ideal life. Then he returned to his 
own high station, having left an example which is still 
occasionally followed. That is the story of Christ as 
spirits have described it. There is nothing here of 
Atonement or Kedemption." 

This is exactly what Satan and the demons would like 
to have the people believe. Shall we believe Sir Conan 
Doyle and his demon prompters and other like witnesses ; 
or shall we believe the Lord Jesus Christ? Of himself 
Jesus says : "I am come that they might have life, and 
that they might have it more abundantly". (John 
10: 10) Again, "the Son of man came not to be min- 
istered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ran- 
som for many". (Matthew 20:28) We believe that 
Jesus is a better witness than any of the professors, 
doctors of divinity, or demons. Again Jesus said : "God 
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 



PAGE SEVENTY-SIX I I I TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life". (John 3: 16) Sir Conan Doyle 
and his messengers would have us believe that the people 
already had life and could not die. He specifically de- 
nies the fall of man and thereby contradicts the Bible, 
both the Old and New Testaments. Since we have 
agreed to let the Bible be the arbiter of this question, 
then Sir Conan Doyle's testimony must absolutely fail. 

Furthermore, the Apostle Paul corroborates the state- 
ment of Jesus, that he came to earth to die for the 
human race, when he says: "Jesus . . . was made a 
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, 
crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of 
God should taste death for every man". And again. 
"There is one God, and one mediator between God and 
men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom 
for all, to be testified in due time". — Hebrews 2 : 9 ; 1 
Timothy 2 : 5, 6. 

The witnesses offered by Mr. Psychic all claim that 
man does not lose his life but merely loses his "shell", 
meaning the body of flesh ; that there is, in fact, no 
death, no cassation of life. We submit that this is a flat 
contradiction of the Scriptures, for "the wages of sin is 
death ; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord".— Eomans 6:23. 

THE RESURRECTION 

The death and resurrection of Jesus provided for the 
awakening of the entire human race out of death and 
the opportunity to each of them to gel life everlasting* 
St. Paul slates: "Christ died for our sins according to 
the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third 
day according to the Scriptures". (1 Corinthians 15:1* 
4)) He was put to death for our sins and raised for 
our justification. — Romans 4:24, 25. 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE SEVENTY-SEVEN 

Kesurrection means a restanding to life, which would 
be impossible if the dead were already alive. Jesus illus- 
trated the awakening of the dead to resurrection by call- 
ing forth Lazarus. Lazarus had been dead for four 
days and buried in a tomb. Jesus surely knew more 
about where he was than any of the eminent witnesses 
offered by Mr. Psychic. He did not build a booth and 
try to get into communication with him. He did not call 
some woman as a medium and try to have her communi- 
cate with him. He did not have table tippings to get 
some answer from Lazarus. He did not have automatic 
writing in order to get some message from him. But 
we read concerning Lazarus: "Then said Jesus unto 
them plainly, Lazarus is dead". (John 11:14) Jesus 
and the disciples then went down to Bethany. He was 
met by Mary and Martha ; and they together with others 
were weeping. And Jesus said: "Where have ye laid 
him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus 
wept".— John 11 : 34, 35. 

The demons, misrepresenting the dead, would tell us 
that it is wrong to weep for those whom we lose. Did 
Jesus do wrong when he wept? Jesus then went to 
Lazarus 7 tomb. "It was a cave, and a stone lay upon 
it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Then they 
took away the stone from the place where the dead was 
laid." Then he prayed to God. Now mark what Jesus 
did. If Lazarus was floating around in the air, able to 
send a wireless or to talk through a medium or to do 
some automatic writing, why did not Jesus ask him to do 
it ? What did he do ? We read : "And when he [ Jesus J 
thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, 
come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound 
hand and foot with grave clothes ; and his face was bound 
about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, 
and let him go/' (John 11 : 43, 44) If Lazarus had 



PAGE SEVENTY-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

been floating around with his head and body tied up, 
associating with the spirits of other dead ones, why does 
not the record say something about it? Because, we 
answer, the Word of God is true and anything in contra- 
diction of it is false. 

Mr. Psychic's testimony, particularly that of Sir 
Conan Doyle, admits that Jesus Christ died, was buried, 
rose from the dead and ascended on high, but would 
have us believe that there was no merit in that except 
as an example. The Scriptures answer that his death 
and resurrection were a guarantee that all the dead shall 
be awakened out of death. Note this Scriptural proof : 
"Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, 
how say some among you that there is no resurrection of 
the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, 
then is Christ not risen : And if Christ be not risen, then 
is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, 
and we are found false witnesses of God; because we 
have testified of God that he raised up Christ : whom he 
raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if 
the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised : and if Christ 
be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins. 
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are 
perished/'-— 1 Corinthians 15 : 12 - 18. 

St. Paul then proceeds to prove conclusively that 
Jesus Christ did rise from the dead and that his resur- 
rection is a guarantee that every one who has died shall 
be awakened out of death. "But now is Christ risen 
from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that 
slept. For since by man came death, by man came also 
the resurrection of the dead. For as all in Adam die, 
even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man 
in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they 
thai are Christ's at his coming."— 1 Cor. 15:20-23. 

The testimony offered by Mr. Psychic would have us 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE SEVENTY-NINE 

believe that at the very instant of death the spirit passes 
into another world alive. Is this in harmony with the 
Scriptures? On the contrary, it is positively disproved, 
by the Scriptures. Jesus said : "I go to prepare a place 
for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I 
am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2,3) St. Paul 
shows that the resurrection of the dead does not take 
place until the second coming of Christ and that until 
that time the dead are wholly unconscious and know not 
anything.. "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring 
with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the 
Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the com- 
ing of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first." 
— 1 Thessalonians 4: 14 - 16. 

Again, in proof that the dead are dead, waiting for the 
resurrection, this Scripture says : "There shall be a res- 
urrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust". 
(Acts 24 : 15) "Marvel not at this : for the hour is com- 
ing, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear 
his voice, and shall come forth." (John 5:28,29) If 
Sir Conan Doyle and his colleagues are correct, why did 
not Jesus in this Scripture say, 'Marvel not; all of those 
who are floating around in the air shall again manifest 
themselves'? No one can be a follower of Christ Jesus 
and accept as truth the teaching of these eminent wise 
men that the dead are alive. 

And now, Mr. Newday, choose this day whom you will 
believe, the Lord Jesus and the Apostles, or the devil 
and his allies. The. issue is squarely drawn. If one is 
true, the other is false. 



PAGE EIGHTY ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

But, Mr. Psychic Trill say, shall we repudiate the testi- 
mony of these great wise men who have given their lives 
to an investigation of this important subject? In this 
connection we are reminded of the words of God's 
prophet, speaking as his mouthpiece concerning the testi- 
mony of men who are wise in their own conceits with 
reference to the condition of the dead : "And when they 
shall say unto you, Inquire of those that have familiar 
spirits, and of wizards [mediums] that whisper [clairau- 
dience, the hearing of apparently foreign messages, by 
means of voices, usually 'internal voices' — Dr. Hyslop], 
and that mutter [messages through mediums] : Say to 
them, Should not a people inquire of their God ? Should 
Ave then in behalf of the living inquire of the dead ? Hold 
to the law and to the testimony. If they [the wit- 
nesses] speak not according to this Word [the Scrip- 
tures] there is no light in them." — Isaiah 8 : 19, 20, see 
Leeser. 

But, says Mr. Psychic, I remind you that there are 
distinguished doctors of divinity and clergymen who 
support these other witnesses who say that they can talk 
with the dead. And to this we answer, We admit that 
there are some who have called themselves doctors of 
divinity who thus believe and teach and to them the 
preaching of the fall of man and the cross of Christ is 
foolishness, just exactly as St. Paul said it would be. 
And furthermore, the Apostle in this same connection 
says: ee I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will 
bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent". 
(1 Corinthians 1 : 18, 19) To this same class and those 
who follow them the Lord prophetically wrote : "Where- 
fore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near 
mo with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, 
but have removed their heart far from me, and their 
fear toward me is taught by the precept of men : there- 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD V V V PAGE EIGHTY-ONE 

fore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work 
among this people, even a marvellous work and a won- 
der : for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and 
the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. 
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from 
the Lord, and their works are in the dark [with mediums 
in booths], and they say, Who seeth us? and who 
knoweth us?"— Isaiah 29: 13 - 15. 

THE MOTIVE 

The real motive of Satan and the demons to propagate 
among the people the teaching that they can communi- 
cate with the dead is that God and his great plan might 
be discredited and that the people might be turned away 
from Christ, the only hope of life ; and that the seed of 
promise might be destroyed. It is a war of light against 
darkness. God has permitted Satan and his emissaries 
to carry it to the limit and in his own due time he 
will destroy both Satan and all his minions of darkness. 

For nearly nineteen hundred years God has been de- 
veloping the seed of promise, the seed of the woman, 
through which blessings shall come to all the families of 
the earth, according to the promise, which blessings are 
an opportunity for life everlasting. There has been 
enmity between this seed and the seed of the serpent at 
all times. When Jesus died upon the cross, Satan 
thought he had succeeded in his purpose to destroy the 
seed. Subsequently, however, Jesus arose, from the dead 
and ascended on high. That was a surprise and disap- 
pointment to Satan, who then set about to develop a 
counterfeit seed. 

At Pentecost the body members of the seed of promise, 
the seed of the woman, began to be selected and devel- 
oped, which work has progressed until now. The body 
members of this seed are designated in the Scriptures 



VAGE EIGHTY-TWO ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAE 

under various names, such as the church, the bride of 
Christ, the wheat, the Lord's jewels, etc. This seed is 
a limited number, as the Scriptures plainly set forth. 
—Revelation 7:4; 14:1-3. 

SATAN'S SEED 

At Pentecost, or shortly thereafter, Satan observed for 
the first time (because the mystery was not sooner re- 
vealed) that the seed of the woman, according to the 
promise, is the Christ and that the body members would 
be selected from among men and be designated as the 
church. In his desperation to destroy this seed, he again 
resorted to fraud and deceit and proceeded shortly there- 
after to organize a counterfeit system of the Christ. 
Civil Eome had become a world power. It was a pagan 
nation. Christians began to grow in number. Desiring 
to corrupt Christianity, Satan induced the autocratic 
Constantine to profess the acceptance of Christianity. 
It is unnecessary to cite history to show the wickedness 
of Constantine. Yet by his accepting Christianity in 
form, but not in fact, Satan accomplished a two-fold 
purpose; viz., the corrupting of the church nominal and 
the uniting of the civil and ecclesiastical powers, and 
there began the development of the Antichrist — Satan's 
own seed. In time Pagan Rome became Papal Rome, an 
ecclesiastical power exercising civil authority, which the 
Scriptures denounce as whoredom. — Revelation 17 : 1 - 5. 

We quote the following from Lord's Old Roman 
World, showing how Satan corrupted the early nominal 
church and thereby added others to his seed, which has 
since warred against the true seed according to the 
promise: 

"I i \v:is not (ill the Fourth Century — when Constantine 
wax converted; when the church was allied with the state; 
when the early faith was itself corrupted; when supersti- 
tion and vain philosophy had entered the ranks of the faith- 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE EIGHTY-THREE 

f ul ; when bishops became courtiers ; when churches became 
both rich and splendid ; when synods were brought under 
political influence ; when monachists [monks] had estab- 
lished a false principle of virtue; when politics and dog- 
matics went hand in hand, and emperors enforced the 
decrees of [church] councils — that men of rank entered the 
church. When Christianity became the religion of the court 
and of the fashionable classes, it was used to support the 
very evils against which it originally protested. The church 
was not only impregnated with the errors of pagan philos- 
ophy, but it adopted many of the ceremonies of Oriental 
worship, which were both minute and magnificent. 

"The clergy, ambitious and worldly, sought rank and dis- 
tinction. They even thronged the courts of princes and 
aspired to temporal honors. They were no longer supported 
by the voluntary contributions of the faithful, but by reve- 
nues supplied by government, or property inherited from the 
old [pagan] temples. Great legacies were made to the 
church by the rich, and these the clergy controlled. These 
bequests became sources of inexhaustible wealth. As wealth 
increased and was intrusted to the clergy, they became in- 
different to the wants of the people — no longer supported by 
them. They became lazy, arrogant and independent. The 
people were shut out of the government of the church. The 
bishop became a grand personage, who controlled and ap- 
pointed his clergy. The church ioas allied loith the state, 
and religious dogmas were enforced by the sword of the 
magistrate. 

"An imposing hierarchy was established, of various grades, 
which culminated in the Bishop of Rome. The Emperor 
decided points of faith, and the clergy were exempted from 
the burdens of the state. There was a great flocking to the 
priestly offices when the clergy wielded so much power and 
became so rich; and men were elevated to great sees [bish- 
oprics], not because of their piety or talents, but by their 
influence with the great. The mission of the church was 
lost sight of in a degrading alliance with the state. Christ- 
ianity was a pageant, a ritualism, an arm of the state, a 
vain philosophy, a superstition, a formula." 

In due time there was a great effort at reformation 
and much progress was made. The Protestant church 
was established, but with its establishment the adversary 



PAGE EIGHTY-FOUR ? ? i TALKING TVITH THE DEAD 

again sowed the seeds of wickedness and in the course 
of time ambitious clergymen in all the Protestant sys- 
tems were teaching Satan's first and famous lie, the 
doctrine of inherent immortality and the kindred doc- 
trine of eternal torture; and mixing politics and re- 
ligion, civil and ecclesiastical functions, they gradually 
drifted away from the Lord and his teachings and thus 
Satan gathered more into his net. 

In all these systems, however, both Catholic and Prot- 
estant, there have been some true Christians and are yet 
true Christians. But every one of their leaders that has 
fallen to the flattery of the adversary has become his 
real instrument and his seed ; and they do his will, espe- 
cially when they preach that the dead are alive, thus 
denying the fall of man, denying the ransom sacrifice, 
and denying the resurrection and restitution of the 
human race. 

"Who is the seed of Satan ? Jesus answers : "Ye are of 
your father the devil, and the desire of your father ye 
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and 
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. 
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he 
is a liar, and the father of it/' (John 8: 4-1) Then we 
ask, Is it the will of God or the will of Satan that the 
doctrine of inherent immortality — there is no death — be 
taught? The answer is obvious. It is Satan and his 
emissaries that would ever keep before the minds of the 
people. There is no death. "In this the children of God 
are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever 
doeth not righteousness is aot of God, neither he that 
loveth not his brother." — 1 John 3 : 10. 

DEMONS IN BABYLON 

But, says Sir. Psychic, have not these distinguished 

clergymen given their lives to a study of the Scriptures 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD 



PAGE EIGTHY-FIVE 




"OUR FRIEND IS NOT DEAD. 

HIS SOUL IS NOW HOVERING NEAR." 



PAGE EIGHTY-SIX ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

and are they not qualified to answer, and when they say 
that we can communicate with the dead shall we say 
that they are working in conjunction with the demons ? 

A brief examination of the Scriptural account will 
satisfy your mind upon this subject. The word Babylon 
originally meant the gateway to God. Afterward, in 
derision, it came to signify confusion, because at Babel 
the language of men was confused. The ancient city of 
Babylon typified mystic Babylon. Mystic Babylon is de- 
scribed in Revelation 17 : 1- -6 as "Babylon the Geat, the 
Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth". 
Harlotry is the illicit relationship between church and 
state. In the Scriptures a good woman is used to sym- 
bolize the true church — the bride of Christ — while a 
harlot symbolizes the false church. The fact that this 
Scripture speaks of one as mother of harlots indicates 
that there must be daughters. The Papal system claims 
to be the mother church and avers that the Protestant 
systems are her daughters. The word, then, in tlio 
larger sense applies to ecclesiasticism, Catholic and Prot- 
estant systems — not to the people in them. The Lord 
foretold that the seed of the serpent would spill the 
blood of the true saints, saying, "I saw the woman 
drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood 
of the martyrs of Jesus". 

Throughout the greater part of the gospel age the 
seed of the woman, iho true saints, have been in captivity 
to and persecuted by the Babylonish systems; and truly 
the church systems represent confusion; for none of 
them teaches a harmonious doctrine, either in harmony 
with the Word or with each other. It is a fact loo 
well known Unit the churches, Catholic and Protestant, 
have become exceedingly worldly. It has become popular 
for jiolil [dans to be members of a church. For instance, 
in the year 101 c a governor of one state was elected 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD i i > PAGE EIGHTY-SEVEN 

because he prayed publicly in the Baptist church and yet 
it was well known that he was not a follower of Christ. 
Politics and religion have become so mixed up that it 
is an abomination in the sight of the Lord. The Lord 
foretold it would thus be, saying, "Babylon the great is 
fallen, is fallen [from God's favor], and is become the 
habitation of devils [demons], and the hold of every 
foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 
For all the nations have drunk of the wine [doctrine] 
of the wrath of her fornication [illicit relationship be- 
tween religion and politics], and the kings of the earth 
have committed fornication with her, and the merchants 
of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of 
her delicacies." — Eevelation 18 : 2, 3. 

And this explains why the doctrine of the demons has 
gotten into the church systems and why many clergymen 
today who have forsaken the Word of God and who are 
teaching higher criticism and their own theories are an- 
nouncing that the dead are alive and that the living can 
communicate with them. 

But, Mr. Newday, the Lord calls to you and to every 
Christian who really loves him and loves righteousness 
and who is yet in bondage to Babylon, saying, "Come out 
of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, 
and that ye receive not of her plagues". — Rev. 18 : 4. 

We note, for instance, that Bishop Fallows, endorsing 
the talking with the dead, says : "I have called the new 
science 'Immortalism' because it depends for its exist- 
ence upon the immortality of the soul, in which we all 
believe, and the preservation of identity beyond the 
grave". Many Catholic and Protestant clergymen adhere 
strictly to the doctrine thus stated by Bishop Fallows. 
They adopt the theory of communicating with the dead 
as conclusive proof of their position. By this they accept 
the lie that Satan told — "Ye shall not surely [i. e. really] 



PAGE EIGHTY-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING VTITH THE DEAD 

die" — and deny God and Jesus and all the plain teach- 
ings of the apostles. 

Above we quoted the Scripture that there is no other 
name given under heaven whereby we must be saved 
except the name of Christ Jesus. The testimony of the 
eminent witness Sir Conan Doyle is to the effect that too 
much stress is laid on the death of Christ Jesus. Sir Conan 
is a very prominent man and he and the other professors 
named have a wide influence over the people and the 
public press is open to these influential men now to sway 
the people ; and thus Satan is blinding these great men 
and is blinding those who yield to them, including a 
large number of clergymen, just as the Apostle said it 
would be. (2 Corinthians 4: 3, 4) If the people can be 
thoroughly convinced that their dead friends are alive 
and not dead, then they will believe that man did not 
fall; that there was no necessity for a redeemer; that 
Jesus Christ did not die to save them; that there is no 
resurrection of the dead ; and thus Satan and the demons 
would succeed in destroying the faith of the people in 
God's great plan of redemption. It is easy, therefore, 
to be seen that one of the greatest menaces to the human 
race today, the strongest delusion, and that which threat- 
ens to destroy the very foundation of faith in God's 
word and plan, is the deception held before the people 
that the living can communicate with the dead. 

From the Scriptures above cited (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 
(i) we have seen that those demons were to be restrained 
in darkness until the judgment day. The clear inference 
to be drawn from this is that when the judgment day 
; - reached they would be able to exercise greater power 
than ever before because 1 they would be in a measure at 
least released from their restraint during judgment. 
Other Scriptures clearly and conclusively prove that we 
are in the time of the judgment upon the nations and upon 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE EIGHTY-NINE 

Christendom, and that this is also the time of the judg- 
ment of the evil spirits, the demons. This explains why 
the World War which has just ended was used as a means 
of inducing more people to turn to spiritism. The great 
war was foretold by the Lord Jesus as the time when 
"nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against 
kingdom", and he further foretold that this would be 
one of the evidences of the end of the old order of things 
just preceding the inauguration of the new order, which 
is the Golden Age. 

The Great Master stated that a further evidence of 
that time would be that this war would be followed 
by general social disturbance, revolutions, and like 
trouble throughout the earth; and we now see that 
in progress. As an additional evidence that we are 
at the end of the old order and the time for the be- 
ginning of the new, which will bring in the Golden 
Age, Jesus said: "As the days of Noah were, so shall 
also the coming of the Son of Man be". (Matthew 
24: 37) It will be remembered, referring to the Scrip- 
tural account of Noah's day, that the demons then 
'had overreached and debauched practically all of the 
human race and the people were indifferent to the 
preachings of Noah and they were going about pursuing 
that which would gratify their desires. They had disre- 
garded God and his Word, and Ave see exactly the same 
thing now prevailing; and it is being brought about 
chiefly through the ministration of demons who did the 
same in Noah's day. We warn you and the people, there- 
fore, to be not deceived by the testimony of wise men, 
but to turn attentively to a careful and faithful study of 
the Bible, which only contains the pure doctrine with 
reference to God's provision for the salvation and bless- 
ing of mankind. 

The above Scriptural proof adduced, therefore, conclu- 



PAGE NINETY ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

sively shows that the dead are dead and are not con- 
scious; that the living cannot communicate with the 
dead; and the testimony of the eminent wise men is 
fully and conclusively explained by the Scriptures, which 
show that in the time in which we are now living the 
demons would exercise greater power, deceiving the 
minds of many, inducing them to believe that their dead 
friends are alive and by thus pretending fraudulently to 
bring them a measure of comfort are in fact deceiving 
them and driving them away from God's great arrange- 
ment for their own salvation. 

I perceive. Mr. Newday, that you love Jehovah, Christ 
Jesus, and the Word, and I perceive an attempt on the 
part of the adversary to accomplish the very thing that 
Jesus foretold. You remember in some of the testimony 
offered here by Mr. Psychic mention is made that Christ 
appeared with the soldiers on the battlefields, which we 
know is false and contrary to the spirit of Christ, be- 
cause he teaches us to do good and not to do evil — not to 
war against each other — and positively forbids us to 
kill. In answer to the question concerning events that 
would transpire at the end of the world, among other 
things he said : "There shall arise false Christs, and false 
preachers, and shall show great signs and wonders; in- 
somuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the 
very elect" — God's own people. — Matthew 24 : 24. 

Satan is the prince of devils, or demons. The testi- 
mony offered in order to camouflage the real purpose and 
to enable deception to be practised upon Christian people 
pretends to put forth Christ and claims he was a greal 
and mighty and good man, and that he now appears on 
The battlefields to comfort those that mourn and to com- 
fort the bereaved ones at home. We know that Satan 
and the demons have no love for Christ and that their 
only purpose in taking his name is to defraud. Such 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE NINETY-ONE 

action on their part marks this as the time mentioned 
by Jesus in Matthew 12 : 24 - 28 — pointing to the fall of 
Satan's kingdom. The demons now breaking away from 
Satan's domination in a measure have produced a condi- 
tion of anarchy in his realm. The Scriptures (Revela- 
tion 7:1-4) show that they would be the cause of 
great trouble in the earth; and without a doubt the 
prevalency of the spirit of insubordination, the spirit 
of revolution and anarchy, the spirit of wickedness 
in high places throughout the earth is due largely 
to the fact that the demons are influencing the minds 
of the people. They are convincing many that there 
is no death and then injecting into their minds all 
kinds of evil thoughts. Without doubt they had much 
to do with the conditions which provoked the world war ; 
and when the war came, they took advantage of it to 
deceive the people further. And this condition will con- 
tinue to grow worse and worse, resulting, as Jesus states, 
in "great tribulation, such as was not since the begin- 
ning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be". 
(Matthew 24: 21) But with the ending of this trouble 
will come the overthrow of Satan, his empire and all of 
his emissaries, to be followed by the righteous reign of 
Christ, bringing blessings to all the people. 

I will submit with my argument and append to this 
copy for your perusal some of the great signs and won- 
ders that these evil ones are working and which are 
calculated to deceive all except those who have their 
minds and hearts turned to the Lord. 

The great time of stress is now on the world. The 
hearts of the people are made sad by so much sickness, 
sorrow, war, revolution, trouble and death. The fraudu- 
lent, dishonest and deceiving adversary — this he has 
always been — and his cohorts come forth with a pre- 
tended message of comfort, taking advantage of this time 



PAGE NINETY-TWO ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

of distress. Their real purpose is to turn the minds of 
the people away from God and away from Jesus, the 
great Eedeemer and Deliverer through whom only the 
blessings can come to mankind. It will be of interest 
to you to notice for a moment what God purposes to do 
with the seed of promise. The Scriptures announce 
that when this seed of promise is completed, the church 
being fully selected and glorified with Christ at the time 
of his second coming and the setting up of his kingdom, 
there will be a time of refreshing for the blessing of the 
people. The people are really waiting for the manifesta- 
tion of this seed, as St. Paul puts it: "The whole crea- 
tion groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" 
— waiting "for the manifestation of the sons of God". 
(Eomans 8 : 22, 19) This is the seed of promise through 
which the blessing shall come and will come. St. Peter 
describes it thus : "Times of refreshing shall come from 
the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus 
Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the 
heaven must receive [retain] until the times of restitu- 
tion of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth 
of all his holy prophets since the world began". (Acts 
3 : 19 - 21) This is the time of reconstruction ; and with 
the Lord's kingdom in full sway, with Satan bound, the 
reconstruction and blessing of mankind will proceed. 
"Because he [God] hath appointed a day, in the which 
lie will judge the world in righteousness by that man 
whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assur- 
ance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the 
.lend." (Acts 1 7 : 31 ) Then all the dead shall be awak- 
ened (John r):25) and given a full opportunity to 
accept the Christ and live everlastingly in happiness. 

The Lord foretold how comfort would come to those 

who have lost their sons, such as you and the good. 

lotheTS described, good mothers whom these demons 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE NINETY-THREE 

are seeking to deceive: "Thus saith the Lord; A voice 
was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; 
Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted 
for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the 
Lord: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes 
from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the 
Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the 
enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, 
that thy children shall come again to their own border." 
(Jeremiah 31: 15-17) The land of the enemy here de- 
scribed is the condition of death, because death is the 
enemy. — 1 Corinthians 15 : 25, 26. 

That will be a time of rejoicing, as the Prophet 
beautifully describes it in the thirty-fifth chapter of 
Isaiah. There he points out that, when the Lord's king- 
dom is established, "the eyes of the blind shall be opened, 
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped"; and the 
people shall rejoice with exceeding joy because the time 
for blessing has come; "and the ransomed of the Lord 
shall return, and come to Zion with songs and ever- 
lasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and 
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away". Why 
does he say here that sorrow and sighing shall flee away ? 
We answer, Because it is Messiah, the Christ, the Seed 
according to the promise, the glorious kingdom, that will 
bring blessings to the people. 

St. John the Revelator beautifully described the 
Lord's kingdom. In symbolic phrase he designates it as a 
holy city, saying, "And I John saw the holy city, new 
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, pre- 
pared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard 
a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle 
of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and 
they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with 
them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all 



TAGS NINETY-FOUR ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any 
more pain : for the former things are passed away. And 
he that sat upon the throne said. Behold, I make all 
things new. And he said unto me, "Write : for these words 
are true and faithful." (Revelation 21: 2-5) The Lord 
plainly shows when death will cease. Satan is trying to 
blind the people to believe that there never was any 
death ; and thus, you see, to accept the theory advanced 
by Mr. Psychic and his witnesses means to destroy God's 
plan. This Scriptural testimony should be so over- 
whelming and convincing that Christian people every- 
where would resist the efforts of the adversary and turn 
their minds and hearts prayerfully to an examination 
and following of the Word of God. 

Xow. Mr. Xewday, the issue is squarely drawn and 
you must determine upon which side of it you will 
stand. If you accept the theory presented by Mr. Psychic 
that you can communicate with your dead son, then 
you must believe that the dead are alive; you must be- 
lieve that the soul of man is immortal — both of which 
views are contradictory of the Scriptures; you must 
repudiate the Bible account of sin and the fall of man; 
you must deny the doctrine of the great atonement sacri- 
fice. Any doctrine or teaching out of harmony with the 
ransom sacrifice is absolutely false, because the ransom 
is the key to the understanding of God's plan of salvation. 
Further, you must repudiate the blood of Jesus which 
bought you; you must repudiate the Bible as a whole as 
the Word of God, and if you take this course you must 
believe Satan's lie instead of God's W^ord; and Jesus 
said concerning God's Word: "Thy word is truth". I 
led sure you want the truth and not falsehood. 

If you accept the Bible view of the question, which I 
have presented to you, you will find it entirely consistent 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE NINETY-FIVE 

with the fact that God created man perfect; that man 
sinned and fell and that Satan was the inducing cause ; 
that Satan and his emissaries have attempted to blind 
the human race to God's plan of redemption; and that 
he seduced the angels, causing them to become demons, 
and they together are the ones now that misrepresent 
the dead. You will find the Bible view of this question 
entirely consistent with the great ransom sacrifice and 
God's wonderful plan for the resurrection of the dead 
and for the blessing of all the families of the earth in 
due time. Truth must be shortly taken from the scaffold 
and forever enthroned. The two forces are now in a 
desperate and final conflict. You must align your- 
self upon the side of one or the other. Choose you this 
day which you will accept, error or truth. 

I am now content to submit my side of the case upon 
this argument; but for your convenience and that of 
others, I append hereto a more specific reference to 
operations of the demons, 



CHAPTER IV 

NEWDAY'S CONCLUSION 

Me. Newday: Gentlemen, I thank you for the pre- 
sentation of this matter. I have followed your argument 
with keen interest. As I listened to that of Mr. Psychic 
it seemed so plausible that I was almost persuaded; but 
when I come to compare it with the Word of God, I am 
constrained to use the words of St. Paul : "Let God be 
true, but every man a liar". (Eomans 3:4) As I stated 
to you in the outset, I have been striving to be a 
Christian all my life. Many of these deep questions I 
have been unable to understand, but as I have listened 
to the presentation of this subject I have received great 
enlightenment. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I 
believe that he died to save us from our sins and that he 
was resurrected from the dead and ascended on high; 
and I believe that he has been selecting his church for 
the past centuries, and the evidence seems clear that 
soon his kingdom will be established, and, as announced 
time and again in the Bible, that the purpose of this 
kingdom is to extend blessings to all the families of the 
earth. And this being true, the theory that the dead 
are alive somewhere and can communicate with the 
living cannot be true. On the contrary, I see that Sat#n 
for many centuries has held before the people that which 
Jesus denounces as the first lie, viz., There is no death. 

And all this testimony presented here on behalf of or 
by Mr. Psychic, even as claimed by him, is based upon 
the theory that there is no death ; and since this theory 
is supported only by Satan's falsehood, I reject it most 
emphatically. I rejoice that the Lord has permitted me 
to see this clear distinction between truth and error; 

97 



PAGE NINETY-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING "VTITH THE DEAD 

and as thus I try the spirits (doctrines) and measure 
them by the great ransom sacrifice. I am convinced of 
the truth as taught by Jesus and the apostles ; namely, 
that the dead are dead; that Jesus has provided a re- 
demption price ; that in God's due time there will be a 
resurrection of the dead and that all will have an op- 
portunity for life everlasting who will render themselves 
in obedience to his righteous arrangement. And while 
I am convinced of this side, I shall be pleased, Mr. 
Lightbearer. if you will attach to your argument the 
answer to the points that you have indicated. 



CHAPTEE V 

DEMON PHENOMENA ANALYZED 

The Book of Eevelation is written in symbols. The 
"four winds of the earth" of Eevelation 7 : 1 symbolize 
the demons inhabiting the atmosphere around the earth. 
The conclusion must be drawn from this text that a 
period of time would come in the world's history in 
which the demons would have their restraint in a 
measure removed and there would be a great time of 
distress and trouble in the world, for which they would 
be largely responsible. Certain Scriptures tell of a 
whirlwind that will be raised up from the coasts of the 
earth. (Jeremiah 23 : 19 ; 25 : 32, 33 ; 30 : 23, 24) These 
words are also symbolic, used evidently to convey the 
thought of a time of great activity of the demons. Satan, 
the chief of devils, the Apostle mentions as "the prince 
of the power of the air". ( Ephesians 2:2) The letting 
loose of these winds or air powers (devils) would seem 
to show that God would remove his restraining hand 
and then there would follow a great trouble. For years 
these demons have been exercising their power to the 
extent granted. Had they been permitted to exercise 
unlimited power they would have wrecked the world 
long ago. 

Without doubt the great revival of so-called communi- 
cation with the dead, which in fact is demonism, that 
came with the world war is another proof of the time in 
which we are living and proof that the demons are 
exercising greater power because of their time of judg- 
ment. The Scriptures indicate that all people, being 
overreached by their sinister influence, will suffer great- 



PAGE ONE HUNDRED ? ? ? TALKING WITH THJS DEAD 

ly. In order that the reader might see the many incon- 
sistent things they do, and in order that the reader 
might appreciate the baneful influence of these evil 
ones, we give herein a statement of many so-called phe- 
nomena that the public press has recently recorded. A 
brief statement is made in the analysis, followed im- 
mediately by a number enclosed in parentheses, which 
corresponds with the number of the subhead set forth 
in this chapter ; and by referring to that the facts can 
be ascertained. For instance, we say concerning these 
demons, "They hate and fear the light (9)"; and by 
reference to this number the proof of the statement here 
made can be found. 



SPIEITISM IN THE PUBLIC PEESS 

THE NATUBE OF THE MESSENGEBS 

For substantiation see items on following pages as indicated 
by numbers. 

They are liars and deceivers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 22, 45,) ; they 
hate and fear the Bible (7, 12), and ridicule it (8, 11) ; they 
hate and fear the light (9) and hate the thought of Jesus 
as man's ransom (10, 11, 12) ; they encourage prayers for 
the dead (14). 

They claim to speak as the voice of the Almighty (13, 45), 
yet they encourage and advocate loose morals (15,16), have 
no interest in mankind (17), have done nothing for man- 
kind (18,20), supply neither wisdom nor comfort (19), and 
produce evil and only evil effects (20). 

They insult and scold (4), curse and swear (21,22,23, 
83), create discord and confusion (38), take advantage of 
the weak (39), frighten dumb animals (24) and have fright- 
ened soldiers into insanity (25). They do acts of malicious 
mischief (26), commit arson (27), lead to suicide (28,29) 
and incite to violence and murder (5,30,31,32). They are 
fraudulent and malignant (33,34,82). They pretend to 
have high moral principle but are sinister, depraved and 
:.<•. and convinced of their own immorality (6,23,35,36, 
37,38,83). They are the spirits of devils (39) and delight to 



TALKING WITH THE BEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDBED-ONE 

hinder God's work (40). They deny the existence of Satan 
in some spiritistic cults (41) and worship him in others (42). 

THE METHODS BY WHICH THEY MANIFEST THEMSELVES 

They are made of the finest gas, held together by elec- 
tricity (43) and are countless myriads in number (48, 63). 
They sometimes impress the brain from without and some- 
times from within (5, 6, 29, 31, 32, 44, 83, 86). They have 
the power to inject thoughts into the mind (45, 46, 88), and 
if for any reason the will is weak or not wholly in harmony 
with God's will they may even read the mind (32, 34, 37, 
68, 88). They fill the mind with wonderful illuminations 
(47, 48), produce strange lights (25, 48, 65), cause dreams 
(30), and impress upon the mind pictures which the eye 
does not see (29, 45, 49, 59, 90). 

They deceive the senses by supposed but not actual 
materializations (51, 52, 53, 54). There are, however, actual 
materializations, composed of living material drawn from 
the medium's body for the purpose (9, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60). 
The method by which the demons invade and use the 
medium's person (61, 62, 63) is of an electrical or galvanic 
nature (45, 83). 

The first step in the road to ruin by these evil angels is 
the use of the ouija board or planchette now to be found 
everywhere (2, 22, 40, 75, 83, 86, 87). The next step is to 
use the medium's hand in writing (29, 67, 68, 69, 83, 88), 
and the next is possession, described above. Demons have 
power over the voices of those they obsess and have vocal 
powers of their own (39, 45, 64). They can imitate the 
scent of roses (65, 66, 90). 

They draw and paint pictures (29, 70, 71) and produce 
pictures on sensitized plates (72, 73). They have directed 
the staging of a play (74). They play musical instruments 
and produce a variety of other sounds (75, 76, 77). They 
do various lifting feats (9, 45, 57, 76, 78) and by these 
various phenomena use up electrical energy (78, 79). 

HOW THEY AFFECT THEIR VICTIMS 

By their seizure of the base of the brain of mediums (81, 
82, 83) they imperil the physical health (79, 80, 83), interrupt 
the step (83), cause loss of sleep (82), shatter the nerves 
and break the spirit (20, 84, 85). Although they may, to 
gain a point, temporarily heal a disease (48, 69), yet in the 
end they drive their victims to insanity (37, 85, 86, 87, 
88, 89, 90). 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TYTO ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

THE REWARDS WHICH THEY PROMISE 

These demons admit that their habitat is in tartarus, the 
atmosphere of this earth (43). They teach that in it is a 
heaven unknown to the Bible (91), wherein prominent saints 
are Jefferson (98), Mark Twain (75), Napoleon (96), 
Roosevelt (75), and Washington (97). In this heaven their 
records indicate that, besides other attractions, there are 
blackboards (95), book-binderies (91), brick-yards (94), 
colleges (91), cats (15, 93), dogs (15), glue factories 
(94), laboratories (91), lawlessness (69), liars (1, 2, 3, 4, 
5, 6, 22, 45), lime-kilns (94), liquor (15, 92), manure (92), 
murders (5, 30, 31, 32, 95), museums (91), newspapers (91), 
paper mills (91), peace conferences (99), sanatoria (91), 
saw-mills (94), schools (91), sexual delights (15), sheep 
(91), tobacco (15, 93), theaters (91), tweed clothes (92), 
and whiskey (92). 

HOW THESE BOGUS MINISTERING SPIRITS MINISTER 

They follow up the relatives of their victims (100), locate 
lost pictures (101), and act as the bearers of so-called 
telepathic messages (102, 103). 

THE OMINOUS SITUATION 

Demonism is sweeping the earth (104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 
109). While it has not deceived The Watch Tower (40, 
45, 46, 50, 59, 67, 68, 76) and a few other theologians (20, 
39, 83, 84, 87, 110), yet there are many ministers who have 
been totally deceived by it (14, 16, 51, 52, 54, 65, 71, 107, 
108, 109). This spiritism craze is nothing more or less than 
a revival of the necromancy (110) denounced in the Bible, 
a return to the witchcraft practised in the days of King 
Saul (111). 

THE REMEDY 

The remedy for demonism lies in a resolute fixing of the 
mind npon good and useful things, a hearty interest in 
doing all that is done as unto the Lord, a determination to 
resist everything akin to spiritism and occultism, avoiding 
1 m as yon would the plague, and as you value your happi- 
ness here and your salvation hereafter. 

THEY ARE LIARS AND DECEIVERS 

(1) The New York 'rimes quotes Dr. J. H. McMahon, the 

Roman Catholic theologian as saying: 

"The testimony is unanimous that you can't always believe the 
spirits." 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-THEEE 

(2) The Pittsburgh Press contains a dispatch from New 
York stating that a woman's apartment was robbed of gems 
worth $15,000. Detectives were called in. While there the 
woman asked a ouija board whether the thief was still in 
the house. The board lied and said yes. He was not there. 

(3) The Woodhaven Leader-Observer narrates an incident 
where a woman whose son was drowned by the sinking of 
the Tampa in Bristol Channel, on the west coast of England, 
September 26, 1918, is said by his mother to have told her 
through a ouija board that the ship was bombed by a 
zeppelin. This was not the case as the ship is known to have 
been torpedoed by a submarine. 

(4) Rupert Hughes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer says 
of a noted spirit medium : 

"Mrs. Piper's wonderful hand was controlled by Dean Bridgman 
Conner who wrote from Mexico that he was in prison and wanted 
to be rescued. It was proved afterward that his body had been in 
its grave all this while. It sickens my soul to be asked to plod 
back along the same old ruts with the same old insolent and 
insulting liars, swindlers, lovers of the dark and practicers of 
legerdemain that have made a Coney Island out of sacred territory 
since the first contemptible magician hoodwinked the first hungry 
dupe." 

(5) Of a woman, who was lured by the spirits into killing 
her child, the Chicago Tribune says : 

"Mrs. G. explained that she had been told at the spiritualistic 
meetings that she was a medium. She attended meetings for a 
year before the voices told her to kill Eleanor. She was told to sit 
for development and the messages would come to her. They did. 
They were whispered to her all the time. One voice told her it 
belonged to a man she did not know who had lived and died in 
that neighborhood and was still lingering around in spirit. The 
voices at times became confused. They told her once to go to 
Danville. When she packed up to go they told her not to go. 
She did not know what to do, which voice to obey." 

(6) Of another refined and educated woman, who was 
gradually led by the spirits to the belief that she had been 
married on the spirit plane, the same paper gives the 
following sad story: 

"She became greatly exalted and told her friends that she could 
communicate with the next world. She found many spiritual 
friends beyond, and one day they told her she had been appointed 
to be married to a certain man. She had only met this man once. 
Her spiritually-led fiance did not appear, but this made no difference 
with her preparations. She prepared her wedding supper for July 
21, in spite of the protests of her family. When the man did riot 
come to the supper she consulted the spirits again and was told 
he would come the next day. This was continued day after day 
for several weeks. Finally she was convinced that she had been 
married on the spiritual plane. She talked to her brother in Mars 
and he told her how to live. She was told to become a vegetarian ; 
that a form of magnetism was to do away with the old conception 
of child-bearing. She learned one day that her spiritual husband 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-FOUR ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

•would be at the Blackstone. She went to meet him, but the clerk 
said he was not in. Then 'the voices' began to bother her. They 
came from evil, she thought. She found that her 'husband' was 
being detained at a sanitarium at Lake Forest. So she went out 
there, too. Later she was sent to a sanitarium at Milwaukee. She 
was convinced that her 'husband' was shot and she tried to kill 
herself." 

THEY HATE AND FEAB THE BIBLE 

(7) The Watchman records the experience of a Korean 
woman possessed with five demons who went to Christian 
missionaries to have them pray for her deliverance from 
their power. 

"While sitting with her face to the floor, with eyes shut, mutter- 
ing to herself, an open Bible was placed on the back of her head. 
She at once snatched it away, saying that she was afraid of it. 
But when a song book was likewise placed, she laughed, saying it 
could not hurt her." 

THEY BIDICULE THE BIBLE 

(8) The Progressive Thinker, a leading spiritist paper, 
says : 

"The writer of Genesis starts out by saying : 'In the beginning 
God created the heavens and the earth,' and he mentions three 
distinct days before the sun was created ; then he tells us how 
God made man and never thought about making woman until he 
saw that his man was tired associating with animals ; then he 
made the first woman out of man's rib. Later, a devil got into a 
snake and defeated all God's plans. In this more enlightened age 
of the world, clear thinkers do not believe that the universe had 
a beginning, but that it always existed and always will exist." 

THEY HATE AND FEAB THE LIGHT 

(9) The New York Evening Telegram narrates that at a 
private seance, while a table was being turned on end and 
lifted by the spirits: 

"The writer, becoming nervous over where they might attempt 
to put the table, flashed on light, which revealed table directly in 
my line of vision back of medium, its lower end fully two feet 
from floor. Alas I did not consider result. The table fell with a 
crash that jarred the whole house and frightened the women of 
the party so that it broke up our sitting." 

THEY HATE THE THOUGHT OF JESUS AS MAN'S RANSOM 

(10) The Progressive Thinker, spiritist, says: 

"The dogmas of vicarious atonement and the forgiveness of 
sins are overthrown by Spiritualism." 

(11) The Weekly Journal, spiritist, says: 

"It is an absurd Idea that Jesus was a perfect man. . . . Jesus 
bad defects and imperfections like nil other men. lie was a simple 
Jewish enthusiast and religious reformer, foolishly supposing him- 
self the Messiah, thereby coniiug to an untimely' death." 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-FIVE 

(12) Moral Philosophy, a spiritist book, says: 
"Slaughtered oxen, hecatombs of human victims, or ten thousand 

bleeding Christs will not atone for the least transgression of the 
laws of our being. . . . The true redemption is not through 
the . . . efficacy of Christ's blood. . . . Terrible is the sig- 
nificance, and humiliating . . . are the words, 'peace with God' 
•reconciled unto God,' 'atonement,' 'salvation through the blood 
of the Lamb,' ... an endless vocabulary which is fossilized 
ignorance, credulity, fear and rascality." 

THEY CLAIM TO SPEAK WITH THE VOICE OF THE ALMIGHTY 

(13) A writer in Cosmopolitan, whose little daughter is 
a medium, reports these beings as saying through his 
daughter : 

"We are expressions of him ; but do not forget that it is he who 
speaks through us, and that we are the reflections of his glory." 

THEY ENCOUBAGE PEAYEES FOE THE DEAD 

(14) At the Congress of the Church of England, Lei- 
cester, England, October 16th, 1919, Dean Welldon said : 

"I think spiritualism has come to fill a void in church practise, 
and because of the coldness in the services, intercessions for the 
departed should be restored." 

THEY ENCOUEAGE AND ADVOCATE LOOSE MOBALS 

(15) The New York Evening Journal reports Sir A. 
Conan Doyle, spiritist, as expressing his opinion that besides 
sexual attraction, liquor and tobacco, the delights of the 
spirit world are just what they are here. He says: 

"Happy circles, life in pleasant homesteads, beautiful gardens, 
lovely flowers, green woods and domestic pets — all of these are 
described in messages from pioneer travelers, who have at last got 
back news to these who still loiter in the dingy old home. It is 
described as a place of joy and laughter and games and sports, and 
peopled by those who are without deformity or bodily weaknesses. 
Let no woman mourn her lost beauty, no man sorrow for his 
lost strength. All is waiting on the other side." 

(16) A writer in the New York Evening Telegram claims 
that it is the teaching of the most prominent spiritists that 
in the spirit world the bereaved mother: 

"will meet again her own Tom, Dick, or Harry with all his loved 
faults and failings, and with the hair, smile and features she 
knew so well." 

The same writer quotes Bishop Charles Sumner Burch 
as saying: 

"I want to believe in spiritualism — and I do believe in it. 

"I remember how great was my astonishment when I learned 
that my fascinating neighbor next door — a grass widow, by the 
way — had been holding conversations with her departed sister, 
who assured her that she was taking good care of the little 
daughter my fascinating neighbor had lost years ago. 

"There was nothing of the fanatic about the grass widow, who 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-SIX ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

used the most alluring perfumes, dressed in the latest styles and 
spent her time between the theatre, the cabaret and the bridge table 
"Spiritualism, if rightly understood, holds out a new promise 
and a new help to the masses, a new promise of reunion to those 
^~° ? a J e J M>t T ,£ a ^ t1 ?, en °ugh to be satisfied with the glimpses 
offered by the Bible." 6 p w 

THEY HAVE NO EEAL INTEEEST IN MANKIND 

(17) A writer in the San Diego Evening Tribune says: 
"I don't know why there seems to be such a lack of interest in 

the spirit world regarding what is happening in this world. There 
is certainly more wisdom on the other side than on this side ; for 
death has swallowed millions of wise men ; but most of the com- 
munications as far as I have been able to ascertain relate to 
prsonal affairs ; none of them so far contains much constructive 
material for rehabilitation of a sadly dilapidated world." 

THEY HAVE DONE NOTHING FOR MANKIND 

(18) Mr. Jerome K. Jerome in the New York Tribune says : 

"I take the last five years. Has spiritualism done anything — is 
it doing anything — to help man to be less brutal, less hypocritical, 
less greedy? Has it done anything — is it doing anything — to lessen 
the appalling wickedness that is threatening, like some foul weed, 
to poison the whole earth? For five years savagery and cruelty 
have been preached to us from the pulpit and from press. Our 
children are being taught it at their mothers' knees. Vengeance 
and hatred are the new virtues. Christ, amid roars of laughter, is 
mocked in our parliaments. What has spiritualism done — what is 
it doing — to help mankind to recover its senses, its manhood ; to 
rescue its soul from being withered by lust and passion?" 

THEY SUPPLY NEITHER WISDOM NOR COMFORT 

(19) The San Francisco Call and Post says: 

"These spirit messages are usually commonplace and gossiping, 
or impossible to understand. They tell no great secret, reveal no 
divinity of mystery, give no really satisfying comfort to saddened 
hearts. The spirit correspondents are strangely dispassionate ; 
they do not thank the world for having set them free from their 
bodies ; nor do they curse that world whose only gift to them was 
death. And, most important of all, they are telling no secrets and 
revealing no wisdom, these dead men who should know every- 
thing now." 

THEY PRODUCE EVIL AND ONLY EVIL EFFECTS 

(20) Dr. J. H. McMahon, the Roman Catholic theologian, 
is reported In the New York Times as saying: 

"After seventy years of spiritualistic teaching and writing there 
has not been conferred upon mankind one benefit. Mankind has 
only been deceived by false hopes. The whole history of spiritualism 
is shot through with evil effects upon physical and moral health." 

THEY CUBSS AND SWEAR 

(21) A woman writing in the Tacoma Sunday Ledger 
narrates that She went to a medium who put her in com- 
munication wiih an Intelligence who represented himself to 
be her deceased husband, she says: 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-SEVEN 

"I went to consult him about a business deal, and the first 
thing he said was, 'I can't see why you always have to be late. 
If we men ran our business the way you women do things, where 
in the name of heaven would we be !' And you know dear John 
always complained about my being late all the time. It was just 
like him." 

(22) The Binghamton Morning Sun reports a former 
ouija board medium as saying: 

"The ouija board lies so that you can't believe anything it says, 
and sometimes it swears so that you do not want to be in the 
same room with it, and the planchette is just as bad." 

(23) A spiritist is reported by Signs of the Times as 
having made the statement : 

"This spiritualism would sweep the world, were it not for just 
one thing. When the spirits are communicating with you, they may 
take a notion to curse and swear in a manner the most horrible, 
and to say and suggest the most obscene things imaginable." 

THEY FRIGHTEN DUMB ANIMALS 

(24) The Harrisonburg (Va.) News Record reports a 
barn in the vicinity apparently occupied by evil spirits and 

says : 

"Horses in the barn cannot be kept haltered because they become 
frightened and„ break the chains by rearing back ; the cows wil? 
not go near the barn." 

THEY HAVE FRIGHTENED SOLDIERS INTO INSANITY 

(25) The Bridgeport Evening Post contains an account 
of an apparition which, frequently repeated, caused four 
soldiers to go insane. This happened at a castle near Milan, 
Italy. The account says: 

"A few nignts ago a soldier was mounting guard over the 
magazine when a luminous figure from whose head issued tongues 
of flame, appeared before him at a distance of about twenty feet. 
The sentinel gave the alarm, and the entire guard hurried to the 
spot. The spectre had in the meantime vanished, but shortly after 
the arrival of the soldiers it reappeared. The whole company then 
fired their rifles at the figure, which instantly dissolved into a 
great ball of fire, finally melting away into space. The following- 
night the apparition was once more seen. A Sicilian soldier of the 
guard approached the figure with a number of his companions, 
and an attack was made on it w T ith the bayonet. Their furious 
thrusts, however, encountered no tangible resistance, and the 
phantom disappeared in a few moments in a fiery halo which was 
speedily dissolved in the atmosphere." 

THEY DO ACTS OF MALICIOUS MISCHIEF 

(26) The Binghamton Press tells of activities of demons 
in a house near Dublin, Ireland: 

"Trouble began when bricks began to fall down the chimney 
and ornaments were broken without visible agency. In the past 
few weeks the activities of the ghost have greatly increased. 



PAGE ONE-HUNDEED-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

Windows are broken, pots smashed, bricks come tumbling down on 
the floor and disappear. While the frightened owner was looking 
at his clock the hands disappeared." 

THEY COMMIT ABSON 

(27) The Minneapolis Journal tells how eleven fires were 
started by demons in one home within a period of thirty 
hours. It says: 

"The first fire was discovered at 3 p. m. Wednesday in a clothes 
closet adjoining the kitchen. Mrs. Stub quenched the flames. Four 
hours later she found the closet on fire again. At 8 : 30 that 
evening, Ann, 3 years old, screamed in the kitchen, and her 
parents found a bow of ribbon tied to a basket on a table, bursting 
into flame. Mr and Mrs. Stub then left the house. At 9 p. m. 
screams from the children roused C. H. Francis in his room on the 
second floor. He found a baby's hood, on a doorknob, burning. 
Fifteen minutes later, summoned by cries, he came in time to beat 
out a blaze in a suit of pajamas on a chair. Within a quarter of 
an hour, another blaze broke out in a blanket, soaked in quenching 
the first closet fire. And at 10 p. m. a~ pile of clothing in the 
middle of the floor began to burn. 

"The next fire was found at 5 :30 p. m. yesterday, when baby 
blankets on a clothes-line took fire. At intervals of a few minutes 
three more fires broke out, one in a curtain, one in a rope hanging 
on the wall, and another in a pile of dishtowels." 

THEY LEAD TO SUICIDE 

(28) Chicago dispatches tell of a girl who became so 
infatuated with the teachings of spiritism that she took 
poison so she could enter the spirit world that much sooner. 

(29) Prophetic News tells of a man who at first yielded 
his hand to spirit-writing, and then, becoming disgusted, 
threw into the fire a beautifully drawn demon-made picture 
of his mother, because he was convinced she was not 
wandering about the earth in company with other spirits. 
He was then subjected to clairaudient and visual torments. 
In vision he was tried and condemned by a council of fallen 
angels and when he attempted to pray his ears were filled 
with clairaudient voices denouncing him. He says: 

"In the midst of all these dangers and difficulties by which I 
Mas well-nitfh overwhelmed, ;i commanding voice from an invisible 
spirit railed mo, saying words to this effect. 'That I had become 
so environed and besieged by evil spirits that there was no deliver- 
ance for mo on earth, and that ho — an angol of the Lord — had 
descended from heaven to hoar mo this command from the Lord 
Jesus — that I must die by my own hand to escape my persecutors, 
and that my soul should then find rest in heaven.' " 

lie could not conceive it possible thai the evil spirits 
would use the sacred name of Christ for such a purpose, but 
they did. The man drank poison and recovered. They 
came again, ordering him a second time to commit suicide 
and he cut the temporal artery and was trying to cut another 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-NINE 

artery when he fell, weakened by the loss of blood. By a 
miracle of the Lord's grace he recovered and found the 
demons had lost their power to approach him. 

THEY INCITE TO MUEDER 

(30) The Chicago Herald Examiner tells of a sea-captain 
who when convicted of murder gave as his excuse for the 
murder : 

"I had a dream last night, in which I saw my dead mother, 
grandmother and God. They told me if I went into the street and 
saw a desperate burglar I was to shoot him and I would go to 
heaven." 

(31) The Mansfield Neivs tells of the defense of a man 
who was convicted of killing a neighbor: 

"I was commanded by a voice which woke me from sleep to go 
to Spencer's cabin and kill the devil. 

"The voice told me that the devil had one of my friends tied 
up there. At first I thought it was a dreamy hallucination and 
remained in bed. But I soon heard the voice again and got up 
and dressed." 

(32) The Chicago Neics made an investigation of spirit 
phenomena and reached the following conclusions: 

"As to the voices that so many are bending ear to catch, I have 
learned that they are more likely to suggest evil than good. Man 
is a spiritual being, but does not always find it out at death, I am 
told. Men and women who cling to thoughts of earthly pleasures 
are hovering about us in spirit form. Their world is much like a 
jail broken loose. Ours is shut, barred, bolted to them until they 
find a medium. Once a communication is established it takes a pos- 
itive thought to fight off these 'voices' or forces of evil. Undevel- 
oped minds, minds that lack will power, cannot maintain them- 
selves. That is why men in drink commit crime. That is why the 
'insane' are tortured. It is never safe to yield your will, your soul 
or individuality, into the keeping of these unearthly powers, for 
darkness may result. I found one woman who was led by the 
•voices' to kill her little girl by drowning her in a bath tub. She 
was sorry to do it, she said, but could not disobey. I found a 
man who said the voices told him to strike a young man that he 
met coming out of a restaurant. He did so and now spends all 
his time talking to voices at the Chicago State Hospital at Dun- 
ning. There are hundreds of similar instances." 

THEY ARE FRAUDULENT AND MALIGNANT 

(33) Dr. Joseph H. McMahon, the Roman Catholic theo- 
logian, says in the New York Times : 

"It is patent that in the manifestations of spiritualism we are 
confronted with the fact that evil and malignant influences are 
encountered. We take our testimony from that of Sir Oliver Lodge 
and Sir Conan Doyle." 

(34) The London Daily Mail says: 

"The most trusted spirit friends or relations sometimes After 
years of intercourse, and often on their own admission, turn out 
to be masquerading entities who have culled the information needed 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TEN ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

for the impersonation from the passive minds and memories of the 
experimenters, and who by some slip or some unusually bold ma- 
noeuvre in the end turn the tables against themselves. The moral 
character of the communicating intelligence is invariably of a low 
order. This fact is and must be admitted by all unprejudiced 
inquirers who have an accurate knowledge of the subject and who 
have themselves observed and experimented for a sufficient length 
of time. In numerous instances, of course, this moral depravity 
is not immediately apparent — indeed it often remains hidden for 
years under a mass of platitudes and of high-sounding phrases, but 
it almost always discloses itself in the end." 

THEY AEE SINISTER, DEPRAVED AND OBSCENE 

(35) Dr. J. Godfrey Raupert, the Roman Catholic theo- 
logian, says: 

"The pure and beautiful communications become mixed with 
impure language ; and finally, the victim awakens to the fact that 
he is entirely at the mercy of a force over which his will no longer 
exercises the slightest control." 

(36) The London Chronicle, reporting one of Dr. Rau- 
pert's lectures, adds : 

"Through the whole of his experience, he obtained proofs that 
the character of these spirits is immoral, and of a blighting 
influence upon their victims. Although for a time they dictate high 
moral principle, especially to those who indulge in automatic writ- 
ing, these invariably degenerate into sinister, blasphemous, or 
obscene suggestions. Hints are thrown out that morality is a 
matter of conventionality, that certain instincts are implanted in 
us in order to be gratified. Mr. Raupert asserts that he has known 
many women ruined utterly in body and soul by these debasing 
immoralities, urged upon them when their will power had been 
destroyed by opening the doors of their mind to evil suggestions." 

(37) Harvey O'Higgins, in the Philadelphia North Amer- 
ican, says of the mind of these beings: 

"It is a mind that easily escapes the control of the conscious 
intelligence that ordinarily governs it : and once out of that control, 
it makes for hysteria, neurasthenia, insanity — hence the warning 
of scientists against experimenting with it in your own person. 
Its content is inordinately sexual, as the studies of Freud and 
his school have made manifest; it is also implicitly religious 
and tacitly convinced of its own immorality — whence, no doubt, 
comes the repellant muddle of religion and free love that has de- 
graded the popular revival of spiritualism in times past." 

(38) J.F.Whitney, Editor of the Pathfinder, says: 

"Now, after a Ionic and constant watchfulness, seeing for months 
and years Its progress and its practical workings upon its devotees, 
its believers, and its mediums, we are compelled to speak our 
honest conviction, which is, that the manifestations coming through 
the acknowledged mediums, who are designated as rapping, tip- 
ping, writing and trance mediums, have a baneful influence upon 
believers, and create discord and conf usion ; that the 'generality of 
these teachings inculcate false Ideas, approve of selfish individual 
and endorse theories and principles which, when carried out, 
debase and make m;m uttic better than ttic brutes These are 
among the fruits of modern spiritualism. Seeing, as we have, the 
gradual progress it makes with its believers, particularly its niedi- 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-ELEVEN 

urns, from lives of morality to those of sensuality and immorality, 
gradually and cautiously undermining the foundation of good prin- 
ciples, we look back with amazement to the radical change which 
a few months will bring about in individuals : for its tendency is 
to approve and endorse each individual act and character, however 
good or bad these acts may be." 

(39) The Bingham ton Morning Sun contains dispatches 
from Columbus, Ohio, showing that several pastors of that 
city have right views on the subject of spiritualism: 

"Spiritualism, though it comes to us under the guise of modern- 
ism, yet is not modern, but is as old as the activities of Satan 
among men', declared Rev. J, T. Britain, pastor of the Central 
Presbyterian Church here, one of the most prominent of the 
clergymen in Ohio's capital city." 

" 'Spiritualism takes advantage of people when they are weak 
and worn out and morbid under life's bereavement and, through 
lying spirits, deceives and ensnares,' said Rev. Charles F. Ulrich. 

" 'Fallen angels, because of their superior powers, are able to 
imitate the voice and mannerisms of our dead friends, thus de- 
ceiving even the mediums who are under their control,' declared 
Rev. W. H. Spring." 

(40) The Watcli Tower tells of a believer in Christ's 
atoning blood who was, for a time, led astray by spiritism 
to whom the evil spirits confessed through a ouija board: 

"It confessed to me that the spirits who operate the board have 
no other mission than to hinder all of the Lord's people. It 
further stated that they took special delight in buffeting, hindering 
and endeavoring to ensnare Brother Russell and his colaborers at 
the Bethel home." 

THEY DENY THE EXISTENCE OF SATAN 

(41) The Progressive Thinker, spiritist, says: 

"Fell and fabled Satan, the whilom 'roaring lion', coursing up 
and down the earth, devouring old and young, the pauper and the 
affluent, we now find tethered fast wherever the light of spiritual 
science illumes the pathway. Liberal Christianity, Universalism, 
Lnitarianisni, etc., sorely wounded the devil, but Spiritualism com- 
pletely killed him, and buried him out of sight, beyond all hope of 
resurrection." 

HOWEVEE, SOilE SPIEITISTS WOESHIP SATAN 

(42) Yance Thompson, in Everybody's Magazine, writes 
of the Satan- worshippers of Paris: 

"It need hardly be said that the rites wherein Lucifer is wor- 
shiped are hid in much mystery. A couple of years ago I visited 
one of the 'chapels' ; it was in the rue Rochechouart. The Black 
Mass, which I have no desire to describe, was celebrated. It was 
Friday at three o'clock. Over the altar was a winged figure of 
Lucifer, amid flames ; he trampled under foot a crocodile — symbol 
of the church. A few days ago I found the chapel closed. Only 
after patient research did I find the new abode of the Satanists. 
Their chapel now is in a great new apartment-house at No. 22 rue 
du Ruisseau, within the shadow of the cathedral of the Sacred 
Heart on Montmartre. As of old, Satan is worshiDped ; every Friday 
the Luciferians gather. I could name many of them—men not 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TWELVE ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

unknown in the learned professions. Some of them have influence 
enough to secure, now and then, a right of midnight entry to the 
catacombs ; there amid skulls and bones, with orgies I do not care 
to describe, they have worshipped the spirit of evil — calling upon 
Baphomet, upon Lucifer and Beelzebub and Ashtoroth and Moloch, 
with cries and wailing hysteria. This attempt to reestablish the 
worship of the fallen archangel is, I think, the most remarkable 
manifestation of modern occultism." 

THEY AEE MADE OF GAS AND ELECTRICITY AND CONFINED 
TO THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE 

(43) No credence can be placed in anything that these 
demons say, but World's Problems makes the following 
statement of what they have to say of themselves: 

"These spirits say they are composed of the very finest gas, 
held together by electricity. They at first retain the form of the 
body, but afterwards lose arms and legs, because these are no 
longer needed, and change into the form of an amoeba, because that 
form is best adopted to fly through space. Then it can pass to 
higher planets. They can see to the limits of the universe and 
through solid bodies, but it takes time to be able to leave the 
earth influence." 

THEY SOMETIMES IMPRESS THE BRAIN FROM WITHIN 
SOMETIMES FROM WITHOUT 

(44) In the New York Evening Telegram a medium, who 
has the clairaudient ear, saj^s: 

"Beyond any physical ear is a hearing more acute, more deli- 
cately discriminating than physical hearing. In the first degree 
the voice is clear ; but apparently from within the brain rather than 
through the auditory nerve. But sometimes the voice wavers, as 
though a door opened and closed with a wind sweeping across it, 
and thus confused the resonance of a voice speaking to me from 
another room. In such moments of instability the second degree 
of clalraudience supervenes. The voice speaks more closely, as 
though lips were held to my ear." 

THEY HAVE THE POWER TO INJECT THOUGHTS INTO THE MIND 

(45) The Watch Tower tells of a medium who was 
deceived by a spirit impersonating the Almighty. Coming 
at length to know he had been basely deceived he engaged 
the spirit in the following conversation: 

" 'Q. : But do you never expect to be better? 

" 'A. : Never. We are the debris of God's moral creation, cast off 
as far as we know only to be destroyed. 

" Q. : But do not the pious dead surround those who are still 
iu the body as guardians from the influences of evil? 

"'.\.: They are never seen by us, if they do. We see nothing 
around the pious, any more than around the wicked. But v 

around them ourselves, Infusing into thi Ir minds some Infidel >> ■• 
atheistic thought, to sec how they will receive it. We take <i 
in disturbing and Irritating them, just as we do you. 

• : How do the inhabitants of your world mostly spend their 
'/ 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-THIRTEEN - 

" 'A. : We spend the time mostly, since the discovery of the medi- 
umistic communications, in developing mediums ; in making psycho- 
logical experiments with them, and in communicating through them. 

" 'Q. : To what extent have the powers of the air dominion and 
rule over the children of men? 

" 'A : They have the power to produce lifelike images in the 
minds 'of impressible mediums. This is often understood by them 
to be an actual sight of a real object. This leads to a great variety 
of delusions. 

" 'Those who are called leaders of Spiritualism, and who know 
the fallacy of those impressions, allow the deceptions to go on, 
and are therefore participators in the swindle. This stamps them 
with infamy. The spirits have the power of using the human 
body, with all its organs and faculties. This is done in the case of 
trance speakers and personating mediums. Perhaps they enter the 
body by means of electrical and galvanic influences, and, having 
entered, they use the vocal organs. 

" 'They also possess power to move ponderous objects, such as 
tables, chairs, etc. This is generally accomplished by the agency 
of scores and hundreds of the invisible workers.' " 

This writer further explains: — 

*' 'They could imitate the manner of speech peculiar to my rela- 
tives and acquaintances, and so exactly did they give the particular 
intonation and inflections of voice, that I would have been com- 
pelled to believe the imitation to be the real had they not also 
imitated the voices of some whom I knew to be living. Upon one 
occasion that occurs particularly to my mind, the voice, style of 
address, and intonation were so exactly personified that for the 
moment I felt positive that the gentleman and the lady represented 
had deceased, and that their disembodied spirits were before me. 
But when I knew by the evidences of my physical senses that it 
was not the case, I was then convinced that the spirits were pre- 
senting assumed characters. All my experiences with these beings 
who surround us in the air sum up this distinct conclusion ; that 
they delight in evil as their chief object, and especially that branch 
of evil called deception. If any one thing pleases them more than 
any other, it is to make those in the earth-life believe the most 
monstrous and absurd theories.' " 

(46) The same magazine also says of the third temptation 
of our Lord: 

"As in the second temptation, we do not think our Lord was 
taken out of the wilderness, but that mental suggestion was used 
to influence him to disobedience to the Father, We are inclined 
to think that the adversary was not visible to our Lord's natural 
sight, but to his mental vision. It is our thought that Satan was 
permitted to bring mental suggestions before our Lord's mind." 

THEY FILL THE MIND WITH WONDERFUL ILLUMINATIONS 

(47) In the New York Evening Telegram a medium de- 
scribes the invasion of her mind by the method of illumin- 
ation as : 

"A blending of all the lights which flame the avenues of sense. 
It is not a matter of stray gleams embroidering shade. No, it is 
precipitate, bursting, luminous — revealing !" 

(48) McClure's Magazine tells of a doctor who determined 
to seek occult help in the cure of disease. He gave a 



PAGE ONE-HTNDRED-FOCRTEEN ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

portion of each day to a determined effort to yield his mind 
and body completely to these demoniacal powers : 

"Day after day he persisted in this strange experiment and soon 
he began to see small blue figures, irregularly shaped, that moved 
about rapidly in the room and cast no shadows. Some of these blue 
figures were luminous, and among them were occasonal luminous 
white figures. At first the doctor regarded this as an hallucination, 
an optical disturbance, similar to the lights that one may see by 
pressing on the eyeballs and thus exciting the visual nerves ; but 
in this case there had been no pressure on the eyeballs nor any 
understandable cause of the phenomena. Furthermore, as days 
passed and the investigation proceeded, there was a noticeable in- 
crease in the number of moving shapes until these seemed to swarm 
everywhere, over the walls, pictures, furniture, like a colony of 
wriggling microbes seen under a microscope. And they were nearly 
always blue, although at times a large yellow radiance would 
appear in the doorway or in some part of the room." 

'As months passed, other persons were relieved of pain, other 
cures were effected and it finally seemed established that there was 
definite virtue in this method of treatment. Whatever these blue 
streams were, they did good work, they helped people ; and I may 
mention that one patient, while under treatment and without any 
conscious suggestion from the doctor, told him that she saw blue 
shapes about her !" 

THEY IMPRESS UPON THE MIND PICTURES WHICH THE 
EYES DO NOT SEE 

(49) The Greenville Daily Piedmont reports a prominent 
grand opera singer as fainting away on the edge of the 
volcano Kilauea. While in that condition her mind was 
filled with a view of the crater not at all obtainable from 
the place where she fainted. 

"We were as close to the edge as it was safe to get, when sud- 
denly I seemed to float away and out over the crater. I could feel 
the heat scorching my body, but I got a clear and wonderful view 
of the seething mass 'of molten lava. I had no sense of my spirit 
being confined in my body. My person seemed to have no particular 
shape. When I recovered I was in my room at the hotel with a 
woman friend bending over me. I was able to give a clear and 
accurate description of the crater and the interior of the volcano. 
d later in its essential features. Our party had 
not left the spot." 

(50) The Watch Tower relates another instance of a 
•rent nature, but illustrating the same principle: 

" 'On one occasion T was sitting in an Indian tent alone with one 

of the "medicine" men of the Blackfoot Indians. It was night and 

;•.!! was quiet in the camp. The night was calm, with a bright moon 

shining. On a sudden the Indian commenced to since, and presently 

the lodge, which was a large one, commenced to tremble; and the 

line increased to such a degree that it rocked violently, even 

lifting off tin' ground, first on one side and then on the other, as 

it n dozen pair of hands were heaving ii on the outside. This 

about two minutes, when I ran out, expecting to find 

liant <>'i tin" outside who had played me a trick, but, to 

Ishment, Q01 a soul was in Bight, and what still more 

i me was to find on examination that the lodge was firmly 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-FIFTEEN 

pegged down to the ground, it being impossible for any number of 
men to have moved and replaced the pegs in so short a time." 

THEY DECEIVE THE SENSES BY SUPPOSED BUT NOT 
ACTUAL MATERIALIZATIONS 

(51) One such instance, involving impressions upon both 
the eye and the ear, and calculated to preserve an old and 
worthless superstition that a priest or minister can render 
any special aid to the dying is narrated by a Catholic priest 
of Washington, D. C, and recorded in the Denver Post : 

" 'One night I was aroused from sleep by a little boy who came 
to me and said, 'My mother is dying and I want her shrived ; come 
with me and I will take you to her bedside.' I went with the boy 
to a neighborhood unfamiliar to me and to a house I had not 
entered before. The husband came to the door and said, 'O 
Father, I am so glad you came'. The boy led me to his mother's 
side, and when the last rites had been administered I turned to 
leave. The father of the boy then said, 'How providential that 
you called when you did ; I could not leave my wife and had no 
one to send on this errand.' 'Why, the boy brought me here,' I 
said. 'What boy?' he asked. I looked around, but the boy had dis- 
appeared. 'He told me that the sick woman was his mother,' I 
said. 'We had a boy, but he died,' said the father, 'and that is 
his picture on the wall.' I looked up and said to him : 'That is 
the boy who led me here.' " 

(52) Another instance in which the eyes and ears of 
some were influenced while only the eyes of others were 
affected appears in the Cape Times, South Africa, which 
reports a materialization of an apparition claiming to be 
Dr. John Philip, of Hankey Congregational Mission, Gamtoos 
Valley, near Cape Elizabeth. He appeared to a whole 
company on September 5th: 

"They held a joint conversation with the apparition, which ap- 
peared at 9 :30 p. m. The apparition gave them a message of love. 
'His voice sounded like the gentle rustling of dry autumn leaves, 
but it was distinctly audible to some of us.' The apparition asked 
after various dead and gone members of the congregation, and 
departed after a promise was given that a search would be made for 
the receipts, which dealt with certain grants of land. The doctor 
was dressed in black, and wore a black coat. He repeated his 
visits nigntly, instructing the searchers where the receipts might 
possibly be found. He invariably departed after they said good 
night, but on the second visitation, says the principal, 'the old 
gentleman followed my housekeeper into my room, where I had made 
up a bed for her, as she was too timid to sleep alone. She was so 
terrified that night that she kept calling upon God to preserve her. 
I stayed awake all night and talked to her about all sorts of things, 
until the old doctor got tired and left us.' " 

(53) Another instance, involving the deception of the 
sense of eye, ear and touch appears in the Glasgow Record. 
It recounts the experience of a doctor in Chicago, who was 
visited in a dimly lighted apartment by his supposed dead 
sweetheart : 



TAGE ONE-HUNDRED-SIXTEEtf ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

"She told me that she must go, but first kissed me. Then I put 
my arms about her and kissed her, but as I did so the young 
woman — who was as completely material as anything could be — 
melted away into atmosphere. Of course, I have had many other 
experiences, but I regard this as the most impressive. I would say 
the touch of a spirit hand is as a rose leaf. It is something — 
nothing." 

(54) McClure's Magazine narrates a similar case, a very 
sad one, from every point of view, in which a clergyman 
was deceived by the supposed materialization of his dead 
wife, in answer to his entirely un-Seriptural and, therefore, 
improper prayers: 

" 'Well, eleven months passed after her death and she did not 
come to me, in spite of my prayers and longings, and although she 
was never out of my thoughts for a single day ; then one night 
she came. I was lying in bed and the room was dark, but I saw 
her as plainly as I see you and I was wide awake, as sane as I 
am at this moment. I saw my wife ! I touched her : I felt her 
caresses. I heard her voice with its pretty Southern accent that 
was so familiar. 'Will, I am here. I have come !' These were the 
first words she spake. She stayed there with me for half an hour 
and we talked about many things, just as we used to talk in real 
life — about the children, about my work, about my grieving for 
her. I asked about her condition in the spirit world,' but she would 
tell me nothing ; she said she was not allowed to do so.' 

" 'It was a different body, a shadowy body, but I could feel it, 
nevertheless. I could feel it penetrating me, and I recognized her 
face, her form. It was she ! Wait ! Listen ! Just as you are 
startled, and, before I knew what I was doing, I had turned on 
the electrics and in the flood of light I saw that she had disap- 
peared. 'Oh, dear God, forgive me !' I cried out. 'Let her come 
back ! Let her come back !' Then I turned out the lights in an 
agony of hope and fear and — my wife came back !' 

" 'Isn't it possible you dreamed all this?' 

" 'No, no, no ! I tell you my wife was there. It is a matter of 
absolute certainty, just as I am certain that you are there. And 
she has come back to me again in the same way on four other 
i ccasiona in the past seventeen years. Each time I have touched 
her, talked to her, heard her voice plainly. There is no possible 
doubt about it. There is nothing in my life as certain as this.' 

"Please notice that this is the well-considered utterance of an 
active and successful New York clergyman who preaches twice every 
Sunday to lar^e congregations, and lectures through the week, a 
broad-ahouldered citizen full of ruinred health and vigor, a doctor 
of divinity, a kind-hearted and trustworthy man, if I am any judge. 
He deckiros that his dead wife has come back to him five times, 
that he has touched her each time, talked with her each time, re- 
ceived precious counsel and comfort from her each time." 

THERE ARE, HOWEVER ACTUAL M ATKK1 ALIZATIONS 

(55) These materializations occur by a power which the 
demons possess of being able to draw out of the medium's 
body connected streams of the cells of which her body is 
composed, and then changing the form of these living cells 
Into any desired appearance. They thus transform the 

medium into a hideous octopus-like creature, and this is the 
• :i seances occur in a dimly lighted room, with the 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-SEVENTEEN 

medium in a cabinet, so that the circle of investigators 
cannot witness the horrible scene as it really is. H. Adding- 
ton Bruce describes these phenomena: 

"According to Professor Schrenck-Notzing and other European 
scientists who have been investigating her feats, darkness is not 
indispensible to the successful functioning of Eva's strange faculty. 
Nor does she resent precautions which would seem to rule out 
fraud. Again and again, in the scientists' own rooms and labora- 
tories, she has submitted to the most rigorous searching of her 
person before and after seances. She has even permitted herself 
to be undressed and sewed up in a bag, covering her entire body 
with the exception of her head. Thus attired, and in a room 
sufficiently illuminated for the purposes of observation, Eva C. has 
amazed her investigators by a bewildering variety of grim, one 
might almost say gruesome, phenomena. 

"Sometimes from her fingertips, sometimes from her ears, some- 
times from ber nose, but mostly from her mouth, the European 
savants have seen emerge a grayish-white substance which takes 
all manner of forms. Usually at first it is quite shapeless, or rib- 
bonlike in appearance. But quickly it resolves into the semblance 
of bodily organs — half formed or fully formed hands, fingers, 

"We read in the records of this strangest of strange affars : 'The 
fingers and hands had the character of living objects, being able 
to grasp objects held up to them — and most certainly were not the 
medium's hands. More than this, the substance presently resolves 
into the likeness of human faces, mostly the faces of beautiful 
young women. It has been found possible to take flashlight pictures 
of these, and they look for all the world like photographs of real 
people.' 

"Yet they are composed merely of a material which the records 
thus describe : 'It is clammy to the touch like a snake, and has a 
certain amount of weight. It is sometimes wet, sometimes dry, 
sometimes hard, sometimes soft. Drops of it were obtained and 
analyzed, and showed on analysis cell residues." 

(56) Dr. J. Godfrey Raupert, the Roman Catholic theolo- 
gian, says on this subject: 

"The spirits seem to draw upon the material substances of the 
medium in order to clothe themselves as it were in the human form 
or phantasm. Experiments, for instance, with the famous medium 
Eusapia Paladino, who was weighed during her trances, showed 
that she lost exactly half her weight ; and experiments with another 
medium, named Miss Wood, showed that the weight of the phan- 
tasm conjured up by her was exactly half that of her own weight, 
which had been correspondingly reduced." 

(57) This subject has been investigated with the aid of 
scientific instruments by W. J. Crawford, B. Sc, author of 
scientific text-books and lecturer at the Municipal Technical 
Institute and Queen's University, Dublin. According to the 
Westminster Gazette, he reports that he has been working 
with recording instruments upon the phenomena of table- 
raising and spirit-rapping; and he found that when a ten- 
pound table was levitated by a medium, the weight of the 
medium was increased by approximately the weight of the 
table, that the reaction of the lifting force did not reach 



PAGE ONE-HDNDEED-EIGHTEEN ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

the floor of the room, that it increased rapidly as the 
underside of the table was approached, and that it had a 
horizontal, as well as a vertical, component. 

(58) The Boston Herald, discussing Dr. Crawford's 
studies, says: 

"His own theory, given in much detail and with the aid of 
numerous diagrams and illustrations, is that the raps, levitations 
and other phenomena of the seance room are produced by psychic, 
rod-like structures which leave the body of the medium near the 
ankles, extend into the room and there cause the movements and 
noises observed. He regards it as 'most likely' that the structures 
are partly composed of matter borrowed from the medium's body — 
a kind of matter unknown to science — the function of the medium 
being 'to lend from her body psychic energy needed by the rods to 
do their work'. In confirmation of this view Dr. Crawford found 
that both medium and sitters lost some of their weight during the 
seances." 

(59) Those who have read and understood the foregoing 
can see why the misty clouds were used in the following 
seances, as recorded in a letter published in the Watch 
Toicer : 

" 'After my mother's death my father married a woman who 
was a spirit medium, and has since tried to convince me of spirit- 
ism. He has given me, repeatedly, accounts of materializing 
seances which he has attended both in his own home and in other 
places. He says he has seen as many as fifteen spirits developed 
at one time, both adults and infants, while the medium sat in her 
cabinet in view of her audience. He says that sometimes he has 
seen a misty cloud appear near the ceiling and gradually descend 
to the floor, taking form as it came down, until it stood upon the 
floor a solid, tangible human being, and would clasp his hand. The 
hand felt as tangible in his grasp as my own would feel. He says 
his dead daughters (my sisters) and other friends who are dead 
have thus appeared to him robed in pure white. Sometimes they 
would materialize a sparkling lace shawl and hold it up and shake 
it before him ; they would sit down by his side or in his lap and 
put their arms around his nock and converse with him of their 
heavenly home, its beauties, its lovely flowers, etc., and of his 
own future, and of their care for him. Finally they would say, 
'Well, I must go' — and the hand clasped in his, and which he was 
holding tightly, would begin to sink out of his grasp, the body 
would grow thin until objects across the room could be discerned 
through the almost transparent body; then it would disappear, 
some limes going down through the floor," 

(GO) Lord Alfred Russell Wallace, spiritist, writes in a 
spiritist magazine called Reason an account of a stance held 
in a scaled room. It is easy to see how these various mate- 
rializations were produced from the medium's body, one 
after another, by the method already described. He says: 

"(1) A female figure in white came out between the curtains 
with Mrs. Rosa in black, and also a male figure, all to nome distance 
in front of the cabinet. Tbis was apparently to demonstrate, onco 

lor all, that, whatever they were, tlu> figures were not Mrs. Ross in 

disguise. (2) .Ai'tcr these bad retired, three female figures appeared 
together, in white robes, and of different heights. These came two 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-NINETEEN 

or three feet in front of the curtain. (3) A male figure came out, 
recognized by a gentleman present as his son. (4) A tall Indian 
figure came out in white moccasins ; he danced and spoke ; he also 
shook hands with me and others, a large, rough hand. (5) A 
female figure with a baby stood close to the entrance of the cabi- 
net. I went up (on invitation), felt the baby's face, nose, and hair, 
and kissed it — apparently a real, soft-skinned, living baby. Other 
ladies and gentlemen agreed. Directly the seance was over, the 
gas was lighted, and again I examined the. bare walls of the cabinet, 
the curtains, and the door, all being just as before, and affording 
no room or place for disposing of the baby alone, far less of the 
other figures." 

THE DEMONS INVADE THE MEDIUMS' PEKSONS 

(61) The New York Evening Telegram contains an article 
in which a medium stated that when her person is invaded 
by the evil spirit she has experiences described as follows : 

"I for the moment become the person, living or dead, of whom 
some one in the Vailed World wishes to speak, or who (if dead) 
wishes to speak for himself. To me that is the most interesting 
phase of my gift. For, having suddenly assumed a posture of some 
one seeking identification, it seems a performance staged wholly 
outside my personality." 

(62) Sir Oliver Lodge, spiritist, senses the same truth, as 
indicated by his statement in Metropolitan Magazine: 

"It now began to appear to me that although a brain and nerve 
mechanism and a muscular organism were as needful as ever fojy, 
effective and demonstrable communication between mind ar*' 1 ryS^'k 
yet that it was possible to use such an organism vl "an"A'V«iv an A 
that identity of instrument was not absolute 1 :-. <^r/. Ari V~io f"",;; ,™ 
some physiological instrument was av^V^-T in°otW wnr-d« fw 

deceased De^rsonalffles -\ -' JiVi ^ g . pe l S0 ? mi % ht be utilized by 
w£^™J?+ ?«?*-•* Vrlos e own body had ceased to work. Mrs. 
yff' • d trance and seemed as it were to vacate her 

" i a lime - In this condition, it appeared temporarily revivi- 

ued, not by her own personality but by another ; and this secondary 
personality, or whatever it ought to be called, was able to manage 
what they called 'the machine', so that through her bodily mechan- 
ism communications were received from persons deceased, but still 
apparently mentally active and retaining their personal memory 
and affection, though now able to display them only in a frag- 
mentary and imperfect manner." 

(63) Dr. James Hyslop in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat 
kays : 

"Physicians, expert alienists, diagnose such cases as hysteria, 
dementia precox, paranoia and other maladies. Our investigation 
takes us deeper, revealing startlingly the parallel between fact and 
ancient theory. We find the estimate of Biblical times more accu- 
rate than that of modern science. In other words, we learn that 
many of these sufferers are literally 'possessed of devils', that is, 
are controlled by bad or mischievous spirits. The evil spirits seem 
to be as disconcertingly plentiful as the physical disease germs ; 
unable to affect normal human beings, they seem to seek as prey 
those weakened by outside troubles (as disease or disaster) of the 
sort which disturb relationships between mind and body. Of the 
existence and persistence of these evil or malicious spirits there 



PAGE ONE-HTTNDRED-TWENTT ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

is a mass of evidence such as cannot be controverted. The point 
is that real sins are of the will." 

THEY HAVE POWEBS OVEB THE VOICE OF MEDIUMS 

(64) The Louisville Herald quotes Sir Arthur Conau 
Doyle, the spiritualist, as saying that at a seance he heard 
the voice of his son who had been dead for a year, and that 
the son asked him to forgive him for his previously ex- 
pressed unbelief in spiritualism. Then he said the voice 
faded. 

The Washington Post contains an account of a medium 
who knows only English, but gave message after message 
in German, French, Spanish, Italian and Indian. 

The Watch Tower contains a story of a fine singer who 
was approached clairaudiently by evil spirits who promised 
that, if she would surrender her will to them, they would 
make her the finest singer in the world. Alarmed, she 
refused, and her voice shortly began to fail until now its 
beauty is all gone ; but the Lord gave her the truth instead. 

(65) In the Louisville Courier-Journal a clergyman re- 
lates that while attending a stance with two other clergy- 
men, where lie saw bluish lights rise and fall, and a supposed 
•-i^h and blood spirit kiss a woman she had known in life: 

tto i'L"- - '*" the overheated, hermetically closed room, delicious, 
buaaeniv i,, -- .. vqss charged with fragrance, which Betsy 
waves of fresh air i£^ ^i.vture of sandalwood, rose and violet. 
names for us. I recognize a i«,x . f Jnfinite me lancholy, evoking 

Subtle at first, it leaves a feeling ol - , A •, lpnvps . R U t the 
thoughts of cemeteries, autumn winds ana u£2? 1 T 1 ,.^' .. 
thoughts which came to me seemed born of wilteu -.' c -- 

(66) The Cleveland Plain Dealer contains an article from 
a woman citing six occurences of distinct scent of roses in 
the home following the death of parents. 

THEY T.'SE THE MEDIUM'S HAND IN WRITING 

(67) The Watch Toxrer tells of a plan carried out by Dr. 
Hodgson and Prof. Hyslop to determine whether or not 
the communications of a certain medium were from her or 
from other entities: 

"The professor masked himself and disguised his voice during his 
visit- to her, and while she lay unconscious, with her head upon 
a pillow res&nc on a table, her hand wrote out messages alleged 
to come from his father. This converted Hyslop to the spiritistic 
hypothesis." 

(68) The l\"atelx Tower also says of writing mediums: 
"Sometimes the control la what la termed mechanical control: 

then the connection between arm and brain la entirely vered, and 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-ONE 

vet the manifestation is made through what is. called the nervous 
fluids, a certain portion of which is retained m .the arm for 'the 
purpose of action. But when the manifestation is what is called 
an impressional manifestation, then the bram and entire nervous 
system is used." 

(69) Basil King in the Cosmopolitan Magazine says of 
himself : 

"In writine these articles, I am little more than an amanuensis, 
and I am at liber tv to take a detached and appraising view of this 
presentation of a great topic for the sheer reason that the presenta- 
tion is not mine." 

He goes on to say, in effect, that these evil spirits are 
good Christian Scientists and that they are the ones really 
responsible for the silly chatter that "All is good, there is 
no evil"- for 7,*en asked why they never expressed them- 
selves on what human beings cal1 f aults < the demons said : 
"We do not know them. We Iook Upon you and see all the 
good — never any evil. We cannot percelVP e ^Jl and . a1 *® 
conscious only of blanks when it is present". 1tu!S--§52^ 
that these are not from God, for God declares that his eyes" 
are in every place "beholding the evil and the good". 

THEY DRAW AND PAINT PICTURES 

(70) The San Diego Evening Tribune contains an account 
of a goldsmith supposedly painting under the spiritual guid- 
ance of Robert S. Gifford, an artist of some note. Thompson, 
the goldsmith, duplicates Gifford's paintings, and is guided 
by clairvoyant ear to scenes from which the original paint- 
ings of Gifford were made. 

(71) Dr. Funk, of Funk & Wagnalls, publishers of the 
Standard Dictionary and the Literary Digest, at a stance 
in Chicago, selected from several canvasses one which was 
stretched on a frame twenty by twenty-four inches. The 
account says : 

"Nobody spoke or moved. In about three minutes a cloud seemed 
to pass over the canvas, leaving a pearl-gray effect for a back- 
ground. A few minutes more and a dull outline of a portrait ap- 
peared. Every few minutes it grew more distinct. Then followed 
the various colors and in forty-five minutes the picture, a perfect 
likeness, was completed." 

THEY PRODUCE PICTURES ON SENSITIZED PLATES 

(72) The Binghamton Morning Sun tells of a woman 
mourning over the loss of a son who had her own photo- 
graph taken with that of a living son but when the photo- 
graph was developed her own face had been omitted from 
the picture and the face of her dead son substituted. The 
photographer could not explain this. 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-TWO ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

(73) The Madison, Indiana, Daily Herald contains a 
so-called spirit picture of Conan Doyle's son leaning upon 
his shoulder. Dr. Doyle states that he examined the camera, 
loaded the plate holders and developed the plates himself. 

THEY HAVE DIRECTED THE STAGING OF A PLAY 

(74) The Poplar Bluff American has a despatch concern- 
ing the manager of the play entitled "The Invisible Foe" : 

"I certainly had no interest in spiritualism before putting on 
'The Invisible Foe'. But I have changed my views. I positively 
affirm that spiritualistic assistance was given us in making the 
play ready for the public. I repeatedly felt strange influences 
guiding me and directing me in my efforts to secure certain novel 
effects. Even the actors felt these influences. I cannot explain it, 
but I think everybody connected with the play felt that extramun- 
dane influences were hovering over the Ha.rris Theater." 

THEY HAVE A VARIETY %$ WAYS OF PRODUCING SOUNDS 

(75) The Atliiiita Georgian gives the story of a medium 
who Ql&njag to have written a book dictated by Roosevelt 
"and Mark Twain. The medium declares that the dictation 

was chiefly through the horn of a talking machine, and that 
the way to use the horn was disclosed through a ouija board. 

(76) The Watch Tower says: 

"The following are some of the tests that usually take place in 
the presence of these mediums : A table rises four to five feet and 
floats in mid-air. Spirit hands and faces are plainly seen and recog- 
nized by their friends. A guitar is played and passed around the 
room by the invisible power. Flowers are brought and passed to 
the audience by hands plainly seen. Bells are rung, harps are 
played, and other tests of a startling nature take place in the 
presence of these wonderful mediums, if the conditions are strictly 
complied with." 

(77) The Winnipeg Free Press reviews a book by Arthur 
Maclean in which he declares that at the time of the sur- 
render of the German fleet, and until that fleet had been 
surrounded by the British ileet, there was a clearly audible 
drumming sound on the flagship which could not be located. 

"All who heard it are convinced that it was no sound of flapping 
stays or any such accident. The ear of the naval officer is attuned 
to all the noises of his ship in fair weather and in foul ; it makes 
no mistakes. All who heard knew that thoy heard the rolling of 
a drum. But those who had hoard it. Admiral, Captain, Com- 
mander, other officers and men of all ratings held then and hold 
now one helief as to that rolling music. They believe that tho 
sound they heard was that of 'Drake's Drum'; the audible mani- 
festation of the spirit of the great sea captain, present a1 this 
hour of the tremendous triumph of Britain on the seas. This is 
the tirm belief Of them all." 

THE1 [MPEBIL THE PHYSICAL HEALTH OF MEDIUMS 

(78) In tho Now York Tribune a mechanical engineer 
describes the moves made In connection with tables: 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ON-HUNDRED-TWENTY-THREE 

"Although a heavy man sits upon the table, it moves about the 
floor with great ease ; or, the table being levitated, a strong man 
pushing from the top cannot depress it to the floor ; or the table 
moves to the side of the circle furthest from the medium and an 
experimenter is asked to lay hold of it and try to prevent its 
return to the center, but he is totally unable to do so ; or the table's 
weight can be temporarily so much increased that it cannot be 
lifted, or on the other hand so much reduced that it can be raised 
by an upward force of an ounce or two ; or the table being turned 
upside down on the floor, cannot be raised by a strong pull on the 
legs, being apparently fastened to the floor." 

The same writer after recording a number of experiments 
seeming to show the use of levers and suckers of great 
power emanating from the body of the medium said respect- 
ing the sitters at the seance : 

"The sitters supply most of the energy required for the manifes- 
tations and this energy is taken in some unknown form from their 
bodies. If a person is in poor health the drain of vital energy may 
be disastrous." 

(79) Hamlin Garland, noted author and investigator, 
tells us that out of these prolonged trances, the medium 
came with feeble, uncertain, scarce perceptible pulse, a 
little deaf, extremities cold, sensationless, taking some time 
for recovery ; and if these seances were frequent and exact- 
ing, the medium, to recover, had to cease from them alto- 
gether for a period of weeks. 

(80) At the Congress of the Church of England, Lei- 
cester, England, 1919, Rev. K. A. Magee said : 

"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is moving from city to city ministering 
to a popular craze. I challenge Sir Arthur to deny that spiritualism 
is perilous to the mental, moral and physical health. Every second 
or third young lady one meets now imagines herself a modern 
St. Theresa." 

THEY CONTROL MEDIUMS BY SEIZING THE BASE OF THE BRAIN 

(81) The cerebellum of the brain is the power-house of 
the body and it is from this center that the evil spirits 
seek control over the reasoning faculties, located in the 
cerebrum, and over the whole body. 

(82) A man who began experimenting with a ouija board 
and subsequently became a writing medium, in a letter 
to the Tacoma Sunday Ledger says: 

"I soon found that I was paying for all this. I began to lose 
sleep, then a constant headache in the base of the brain began to 
be almost unbearable, then dizziness, and then I quit. But to my 
fear and horror, I had become a sort of victim of this thing. I 
had read of drug fiends being drawn like as by a chain. Well, that 
was just the sensation I had. I strove against it until my head 
felt faint and my family felt so miserable and frightened. I was 
ashamed to go to a doctor, so I simply had to wear this uncanny 
spell off. In my sleep I was tortured by hot strangling fumes, and 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FOER ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

a sensation as if something was pushing me headlong over a cliff, 
and would wake from the sound of pencils rattling. To abuse or 
bruise the mind or make it the tool of unknown and unscrupulous 
agents is unhealthy and dangerous business." 

(83) Dr. J. Godfrey Raupert, the Roman Catholic theo- 
logian, says of a young woman who at first became a 
planchette medium and then a writing medium : 

"About this time she began to experience pains at the base of 
the brain, and these gradually increased until they became almost 
unbearable. Her step was interrupted and her health began to fail 
perceptibly. It was at this time that she announced that she was 
obsessed ; that the intelligence that had communicated through 
her had taken full command of her body, so that she was no 
longer a free agent. Treatment of every kind was tried — all to 
no benefit. And now a new and more terrible feature developed. 
Hitherto the impulse had been to write. Now it was voices that 
sounded in her head, sometimes one, but more frequently two, 
three, or even four voices, talking to one another and freely con- 
versing about her. Some would commend her conduct ; others 
would blame her. Some would swear and curse and call her names 
— names so vile that she could scarcely have heard them in her 
normal state, while others would try to defend her from the 
grosser and coarser forces. In the early stages the things which 
the voices told her to do were practically harmless, but before long, 
they commenced to urge her to commit suicide, and she sought to 
obey them." 

THEY SHATTER THE NERVES AND BREAK THE SPIRIT 

(84) Dr. Bernard Vaughan, another Roman Catholic 
theologian, says: 

"I have come across, abroad as well as at home, men and women 
devoted to spiritism. I have not found them improved by it, and 
in more instances than one spiritism has unhinged their minds, 
shattered their nerves, broken their spirit, and left them fit for 
nothing. Those who have gone over seem to have lost rather than 
have gained by the process. They have taught me nothing worth 
knowing, and since 1S51, when this business was so vehemently 
started, the spirits have shown less progress in knowledge there 
than scientists in knowledge here." 

(85) J. D. Rhymus, the author, shows that In many cases 
insanity is merely demoniacal possession or "obsession". 

Tie says : 

"In my own case I know that the brain was not diseased at all ; 
my whole nature Beemed to be intensified by conflicting emotions 
raging within my breast. I was completely enveloped and pervaded 
by thought, or in other words thought came as something im- 
1 upon me, seeking expression through me. without being 
coined or generated by the action of my own brain, although fully 
conscious at the time, as I am now, that I possessed a strength 
within me not my own will and brain power so-called; — yet it was 
so blended with, and manifested through my own powers of action, 
that I f'-lt great exhaustion of nerve force and mental prostration 
when the conditions subsided." 

TUFA" DRTVE THEIR VICTIMS TO INSANITY 

(86) The Blngnamton Morning Sun reports Dr. Otto G. 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD i i t PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-FIVE 

Freyermuth, neurologist, of San Francisco, as denouncing 
what he terms ouija-obsession as the cause of insanity of 
three women. He says: 

"One fully clothed, was walking calmly into a lake when rescued 
with difficulty. Another constantly 'heard mysterious voices'. The 
brilliant mind of the third has become shattered. Few brains are 
capable of withstanding sustained concentration on one subject, 
and I find this especially true of devotees to the occult and of what 
passes current for the supernatural." 

(87) At the Church of England Congress, Leicester, 
England, Rev. J. A. V. Magee declared: 

"It is possible to become possessed of evil spirits which are 
earth-bound and trying to get back to this earth, and once they 
take possession of one they do not go as easily as they came. I 
have seen a woman stark, staring mad under the influence of the 

Elanchette. I was told only a fortnight ago of a married man and 
is wife who had gone stark, staring mad through the thing. A 
woman told me her daughter has become possessed of evil spirits, 
and has become transformed in character and transformed for 
the worse." 

(88) Dr. J. Godfrey Raupert, the Roman Catholic theolog- 
ian, says in the Scranton Times: 

"At first, the messages may be recognized as coming from one's 
own mind, but as the spirit obtains fuller possession of the mind, 
messages come which are unknown to the operator. The more 
frequently the instrument is used, the easier of access the 
mind becomes to the spirit and the door to the subconscious 
mind is more widely opened. At first, the operator is his own 
master, but gradually the spirit gains control and the operator 
becomes possessed. The board seems an awkward instrument, and 
the automatic pencil is used, The mind becomes more and more 
nassive, and the control of the spirit greater and greater. The 
result is insanity." 

(89) Vance Thompson, in Everybody's says: 

"I have seen men die and men go mad in their attempts to ex- 
plore the land beyond the frontier, that cloudy land of supersti- 
tions, of hopes and terrors, where the unknown forces flit to and 
fro. It is not well to adventure there. The practise of magic is 
dangerous. It is the most perfidious of psychic intoxicants." 

(90) The Chicago Tribune, 1919, contains articles showing 
that wrecks of the current wave of occultism are filling 
the hospitals of Illinois. 

"Thousands of them hear the 'voices' and see the 'faces'. Some 
smell sweet wild odors of the heavenland and catch strains of 
celestial music. Some as Sabina, the Amish maid, fight evil faces 
which appear and reappear on the troubled screen of their mind." 

THEY TEACH A HEAVEN UNKNOWN TO THE BIBLE 

(91) The Progressive Thinker, spiritist, gives the fol- 
lowing definition of heaven ; 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-SIX ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

"Heaven — what is it? A rational, natural, human existence, a 
solid, substantial world, a purified and beautiful earth (so to 
speak), with undulating hills and verdant slopes, purling streams 
and fragrant flowers ; meandering rivulets and glassy lakes, with 
the wealth of field and forest, grotto and lawn ; with sportive 
lambkins and paradisaical birds ; with towns and cities, hamlets 
and villages, brotherhoods and associations, schools and sanatoria, 
colleges and laboratories, museums and observatories, newspapers 
and libraries, theaters and art galleries, temples and towers, 
chateaux and palaces, rural cottages and stately mansions." 

HEAVENLY WHISKEY, DENTISTEY AND MANURE 

(92) According to Sir Oliver Lodge's book Raymond 
the spirit world is inhabited by spirit beings who have flesh 
but do not bleed. They wear tweed clothes, drink whiskey 
and have manure piles, and 

"Yes, yes, and eyelashes, and eyebrows, exactly the same, and a 
tongue and teeth. He has got a new tooth now, a good tooth ha? 
come in place of the one that had gone." 

HEAVENLY CATS AND TOBACCO 

(93) The Detroit Free Press says: 

"Messages alleged to be from the spirit of George Eliot, as given 
in 'The Twentieth Plane', are so diametrically at variance with her 
lofty mind, her modesty and sense of justice as known in this life, 
as to be a travesty on her character. The novel 'Jap Herron', 
alleged to have been written via the ouija board, by Mark Twain, 
indicated such a slump in mentality and literary style that his 
daughter compelled its withdrawal from circulation. Certainly these 
so-called messages, which include mention of spiritual tobacco, cats 
and tricks, do not indicate the development that should be incident 
to a higher plane of existence." 

HEAVENLY BRICK-KILNS AND MORTAR BEDS 

(94) The Post-Dispatch, of St. Louis, gives some choice 
information from these demons as to what heaven is like. 
( Much they know about it ! ) : 

"You want to know about our houses? Well, they are built by 
bricklayers and designed by architects, as they would be on earth. 
Jn the spirit world all work is equally honorable, and each man 
does that for which he is best fitted ; if he is best at manual 
employment, he realizes his limitations and has no foolish desire 
to appear other than he is, as all work is done under beautiful 
conditions. All are happy and free." 

HEAVENLY CHALK AND BLACKBOARDS 

(95) The Rattle Creek Enquirer tells us of another dis- 
guised demon. We give a part of his "message": 

"Children have their lessons and their play also and grow alike 
in mentality and stature. Books, he says, are more important in 
that existence than on earth. My secretary seems myself as I 
write. Her hand Is given to my control as I might once have 
used a fountain pen." 

The same "author" expressed his regret during the war 
that he could not lire his Winchester, and adds: 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-SEVEN 

"Must I remind you, mothers of men, that your sons who fight 
and fall on the battlefield are not lost? Only the mortal body 
ceases to be. The mind, the soul, the spirit will live on and on, ever 
increasing in power to serve men and save them from their own 
destruction." 

Notice that at one and the same time this demon professed 
a wish to destroy men and to prevent them from destruction. 

SAINT NAPOLEON STILL AT IT 

(96) The San Antonio Express tells of the activities of 
St. (?) Napoleon, as follows: 

"Napoleon's energy, perseverance and enthusiasm were wonder- 
ful. Never a day passed but he worked for the allies in some form 
or other ; and he constantly visited the front. He was also untir- 
ing in his 'canvassing' among other spirits, especially the higher 
ones, of whom he entreated aid. He was the idol of his men, to a 
degree that it is astonishing and hardly to be believed until the 
man himself is met personally. I observed that some of his most 
devoted friends were British. They were possessed with an ardent 
devotion to him, and admiration for his genius." 

ST. WASHINGTON, NOT HAVING BEEN PROPERLY "BREAD UP" IN 
HEAVEN'S SCHOOLS, HAS NOT "WENT FORWARD" IN GRAMMAR 

(97) The Wichita Eagle gives supposed spirit messages 
from Washington in which he compared his own day with 
ours and says: 

"Since that time the world has went forward in the arts and 
sciences by leaps and by bounds. You have bread up better states- 
men, you have far greater advantages for education." 

ST. JEFFERSON AND OTHERS "EXPRESSED THEIRSELVES FAVORABLE" 

(98) The same paper follows with this gem from the 
supposed writer of the Constitution : 

"I may add, that all of the spirits of the modern and past states- 
men who have come to dwell in spirit life have expressed their- 
selves favorable for the adoption of an international court to 
make wars impossible." 

ST. PETER STUCK IT OUT, SHANTUNG AND ALL 

(99) The following is a spiritist account of the heavenly 
peace conference which is supposed to have worked out 
the league of nations scheme : 

"At the beginning of the conference each country made its case. 
The German angels (that sounds strange) made a quite passable 
case, without, of course, any of the prevarications there might be 
on earth. They spoke of the cramp of their people, .and their few 
and unhealthy colonies, etc. They admitted openly the wrong in 
the main, only making a little palliation." 

We asked what envoys represented England. 

"These envoys are more than high spirits : they are glorious. One 
representing England was King Alfred, another Edward the Con- 
fessor. France, Charlemagne and St. Louis. Italy, St. Anthony and 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

some great painter or musician. The other English envoy was a 
woman spirit, with some Saxon name, like Editha or Godiva or 
Torfrida, but I do not know much of your history. I will find 
out and send you a message." 

We asked how many envoys for each country. 

"Generally two men and one woman, but for neutral countries 
only one envoy." 

We asked whether any one presided over the conference. 

"Some very, very good spirit, with suitable mind. Who do you 
think? An extraordinarily high spirit, an Apostle — St. Peter. 

" 'Peace must be sought.' That was said by St. Peter in his 
opening discourse : and all agreed by sign. He said an ideal peace 
was impossible, and that even if unfair we must make the best 
peace that would be taken on earth by all. He said no more then, 
but just listened, and watched ; perhaps he knows the mind of 
God on it all, for he walks with God. But he could not say, of 
course, so we do not know God's will in the matter. God may 
have given it as an opportunity, and if the world says : 'No, I 
must beat this, or get that, or win the other', the words may be 
spoken, 'Let it go on'. I should think, though I dare not hope, but 
perhaps it is not sinful, that he is watching how the world received 
the proposal." 

We asked if certain other high angels were at the congress. 

"They came at the opening — and St. Paul, St. Joseph, and others, 
and all said a prayer ; and then" (i. e., all the high angels) "went 
save St. Peter, and have not been again. . . ." 

THEY FOLLOW UP RELATIVES OF DUPES 

(100) The Boston Traveler relates an incident of a spirit- 
ualist living near Boston who had the residence of his sister, 
St. John, N. B., revealed to him. They had not know r n each 
other's whereabouts for about twenty-five years. 

THEY LOCATE LOST PICTURES 

(101) The Denver Post narrates an incident of a medium 
saying to a bereaved mother, I have a message from your 
dead boy: 

"Tell my mother not to feel so badly about me, and to go to the 
attic, and in one of my trunks she will find a book and in that 
book she will find the picture, of me that she has been trying to 
find. Immediately they both went to the attic and after "looking 
through two trunks without success, they finally found, in the third 
trunk, the picture in a book, as he had told her." 

THEY ACT AS THE BEABEBS OF TELEPATHIC MESSAGES 

(102) Prof. Hyslop says in the New York American: 
"Telepathy is not a matter of thought waves. The solution is 

*o simple as to he astounding. Messages are carried from mind 
to mind by the spirits." 

(103) This explanation of Prof. Hyslop is confirmed by 

:i story in the Woman's Home Companion which tells of a 
(nther :it n seance who was told by a medium that at 11 :25 
a.m., when Ik 1 BUpposed bis daughter in a distant city to be 
at school, she was instead playing a piano. TTe telegrapbed 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY-NINE 

home and found it true, that she was playing at just that 
hour, having been detained home by a cold. 

DEMONISM IS SWEEPING THE EARTH 

(104) The Kansas City Star says that: 
"Spiritualism is taking Chicago by storm. Ten large spiritualist 

societies report thousands of converts. Many of them are holding 
nightly meetings to accommodate the crowds. Amateur seances in 
table tipping have become so popular shopgirls are holding them in 
street cars. The hotel reading rooms have added the trick planks 
to the amusement equipment." 

(105) The Fresno Herald says that: 

"Official estimates put the number of thought readers, mediums 
and seers in Paris at thirty-five thousand." 

(106) The book, World Problems, tells us that: 

"It is impossible to tell the number who are avowed spiritualists 
or are adherents. The organization is as loose and consistent as its 
teachings and morals. Algernon Pollock says there are sixty million 
modern spiritualists in the world, with two hundred journals de- 
voted to the propaganda. Dr. F. Maack, of Hamburg, an antagonist, 
declares there are ten thousand in Berlin alone, among whom are 
exalted and court personages, and four hundred mediums. The 
lately deposed czar of Russia is said to be a devoted believer. In 
the United States, the number is estimated all the way from two 
million to sixteen million." 

(107) The Los Angeles Examiner reports the death of a 
neighbor of Billy Sunday, named Harry Monroe. 

" Accept my deepest regret,' Sunday wired. 'He will be missed 

by every one. Thousands call him blessed. Last night at the 

hour he died I heard a sound from heaven. It must have been 
Harry. I will never forget him.' " 

(108) The Scranton Times contains a despatch from 
Philadelphia regarding a supposed visit from the wife of 
the Rev. Dr. Russell H. Conwell, of the Grace Baptist temple. 
Mrs. Conwell died thirty years ago and this is what her 
worthy husband says: 

"Dr. Conwell, founder and president of Temple University, told 
of his experience at a recent service in the temple. 'I received 
three strange visits from my wife', he said. 'On three successive 
nights she seemed to come and sit on the side of the bed I occupied. 
While sitting there she gave me valuable information relating to 
several important papers I knew were in the house but which I 
could not find. ... I got out of bed immediately after receiving 
the instructions and found the papers just where she said they 
""jre,' " 

(109) Dr. Heber Newton is reported in the Pittsburgh 
Times as saying: 

"Only a month ago two clergymen in Brooklyn came to me late 
at night and said they represented thirteen other pastors who 



PAGE ONE-HUNDKED-THIRTY ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAr 

secretly had been making an investigation of spiritualism, bu1 
that they had got out of their depth in the mysteries and wonders 
of it. Would I help them? That was not the first time such s 
thing had happened." 

A REVIVAL OF NECEOMANCY 

(110) At the Congress of the Church of England, Lei- 
cester, England, October 16th, the Very Rev. William R, 
Inge, Archbishop of Canterbury, said: 

"If this kind of after life were true — that portrayed in the 
pitiable revival of necromancy in which so many desolate hearts 
have sought spurious satisfaction — it would indeed be a melan- 
choly postponement or negation of all we hope and believe about 
our dead." 

KIPLING'S TRUE VISION OF SPIRITISM 

(111) The Washington Post, 1919, published the following 
lines : 

The road to En-dor is easy to tread 

For mother or yearning wife. 
There, it is sure, we shall meet our dead 

As they were even in life. 
Earth has not dreamed of the blessing in store 
For desolate hearts on the road to En-dor. 

Whispers shall comfort us out of the dark — 

Hands — ah God '—that we knew ! 
Visions and voices — look and hark! — 

Shall prove that our tale is true. 
And that those who have passed to the further shore 
May be halted — at a price — on the road to En-dor. 

But they are so deep in their new eclipse 
Nothing they say can reach, 
Unless it be uttered by alien lips, 

And framed in a stranger's speech, 
The son must send word to the mother that bore, 

Through an hireling's mouth. 'Tis the rule of En-dor. 

And not for nothing these gifts are shown 

By such as delight our dead. 
They must twitch and stiffen and slaver and groan 

Ere the eyes arc set in the head, 
And the voice from the belly begins. Therefore, 
We pas them a wage where they ply at En-dor. 

Even so. we have need of faith 

And patience to follow the clue. 
Often, a i first, what the dear one saith 

Is babble, <>r Jest, or untrue. 
(Lying spirits perplex us sore 
Till our loves— and our Jives — are well known at En-dor.) 

< a, the toad to En-dor is the oldest road 

And the craziest road of all ! 
Straight it runs to the Witch's abode, 

11 did in the days of Said. 
And Dothing has changed of the sorrow in store 
Tor go down on the road to En-dor' 



CHAPTER VI 

SPIRITS IN PRISON 

"Christ even once suffered on account of sins — the 
righteous for the unrighteous — that he might lead us to 
God, being indeed put to death in the flesh, but made 
alive in spirit; by which also he preached to the spirits 
in prison, who formerly disobeyed, when the patience of 
God was waiting in the days of Noah, while an ark was 
being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, 
were carried safely through the water." — 1 Peter 3 : 18 - 
20, Diagloit. 

It is admitted by all who accept the Bible that St. 
Peter stated a great truth when he said : "by which also 
be preached to the spirits in prison". It is quite evident 
that Jesus did some preaching to spirits and that these 
spirits were imprisoned. The question, however, is, who 
are these spirits and when and how did Jesus preach 
to them? 

Those who believe and advocate the doctrine of im- 
mortality of all souls say that these spirits mentioned 
are spirits of men who have lived on earth and died. 
Many clergymen have gotten themselves into a very 
inconsistent position, from which it is difficult to extri- 
cate themselves unless they entirely repudiate their 
teachings. They do not state how these spirits of dead 
men got into prison after they died. They teach that the 
final destiny of every man is fixed at death; that the 
good go to heaven and the bad to eternal torture, and 
that there is no probation after death. If that position 
be true, then why should Jesus preach to these spirits at 
all? Surely the good Master would not preach to them 
merely to torment them; and the fact that he would 

131 



PAGE ONE-HUNBRED-THIRTY-TWO ? ? ? TALKING -WITH THE DEAD 

preach to them would imply that there would be some 
chance for them if they would heed his preaching. 

It is true, the Catholic doctrine holds that there are 
many Catholic souls in purgatory, there to be purged 
and cleansed, with the possibility of being removed to a 
heavenly state, provided prayers are said by the living on 
behalf of those who have died. They consign heretics to 
eternal torture and thus fix the destiny of man at death, 
with the exception stated. Then, of course, there would 
be no purpose in Jesus preaching to those in eternal 
torment. Furthermore, it is to be observed that at the 
time of the death and resurrection of Jesus there was no 
Catholic system and no purgatory; hence no spirits of 
dead men or others in purgatory. Therefore Jesus could 
not have preached to such. Purgatory is a Catholic 
invention and the Catholic system sprang into existence 
long after the crucifixion of our Lord. It follows, then, 
that the preaching of Jesus referred to in this text 
could not have been to those who Catholics claim are 
in purgatory . 

But if the Scriptures are to be taken as the guide, 
then we must conclude that the spirits mentioned were 
not spirits of dead men, because the Scriptures say: 

"The living know that they shall die: but the dead know 
not anything." — Eeclesiastes 9 : 5. 

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; 
for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, 
in the grave, whither thou goest." — Eeclesiastes 9:10. 

"His [man's] breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth: 
in that very day his thoughts perish." — Psalm 14G : 4. 

It would have been impossible, then, for Jesus to be 
preaching between his death and resurrection to some 
men who had lived and died prior to the time of his 
preaching. Furthermore, Jesus himself was dead for 
three days and during that time he could not have done 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-THIRTY-THREE 

any oral preaching to any one. Thus we see that the 
Protestant and Catholic clergy and the spiritists are 
flatly contradicted by the plain teachings of the Bible. 
It follows that there must be some explanation of this 
Scripture in harmony with that part of the Bible which 
is clearly understood. 

IDENTITY OF IMPRISONED SPIRITS 

Let us first ascertain definitely who the spirits are to 
whom Jesus preached. Since the text says he preached 
to spirits, that definitely settles it that it was not to men 
but to spirit beings. Our knowledge of spirit beings is 
limited to the Bible. The context definitely settles the 
question as to who these spirits are. We read : "By which 
he preached unto the spirits in prison, which [spirits] 
sometime were disobedient when once the longsuffering 
of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a 
preparing". We here briefly restate the origin and 
identity of these spirits. The Bible account shows what 
was transpiring in Noah's day. ( See Genesis 6 : 1-5 ) 
After Adam and Eve were driven from Eden, spirit 
beings materialized, evidently by the permission of 
Jehovah (Hebrews 2:5) with the avowed purpose of 
aiding the human race. But Satan, the prince of demons, 
overreached them, and by seductive methods induced 
them to take wives from amongst the human family, 
the intercourse of which resulted in a progeny wicked of 
heart, which wickedness increased. "And God saw that 
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that 
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only 
evil continually. And the Lord said, I will destroy man 
whom I have created from the face of the earth. Bui 
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."-Gen.6 :5,7,8. 
Jehovah then brought the great deluge, which resulted 
in the destruction of everything not taken into the arl% 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-THIRTY-FOUR ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

by Noah. These evil spirits who had materialized in 
human bodies were not destroyed, but they dematerial- 
ized. We have other Biblical proofs that such a thing 
as materialization and dematerialization did occur at 
other times. Fc instance, the angels who appeared as 
young men at our Lord's sepulchre, and again at his 
ascension, appeared in human form and as soon as they 
had accomplished the purpose of their visit they vanished. 
As Abraham sat in the door of his tent, three men ap- 
peared unto him. He received them and entertained 
them and talked with them. They appeared in human 
form and shortly thereafter dematerialized and disap- 
peared. — Genesis 18 : 1-15. 

The Scriptures clearly indicate that at the time of the 
flood God imprisoned the angels who had been debauched 
by Satan and who had in turn debauched the human 
race, and that this imprisonment was because of their 
disobedience and resulted in preventing them from again 
materializing as they once had done. Jehovah could 
have destroyed them at the time, but evidently it was 
not his purpose to do so, but to teach some other lessons 
to other creatures. Instead, therefore, he isolated them 
from himself and from the holy angels by placing them 
in restraint or prison condition, as stated by St. Peter, 
who evidently had this in mind when he wrote the first 
text above mentioned : "God did not spare the angels who 
sinned, but having confined them in Tartarus [a con- 
dition existing in respect to the atmosphere and near the 
earth] with chains of thick darkness, delivered them over 
into custody for judgment". (2 Peter 2:4, Diaglott) 
Another standard authority (Weymouth) translates the 
text thus: "For God did not spare angels when they had 
sinned, but hurling them down to Tartarus consigned 
them to caves of darkness, keeping them in readiness for 
judgment". On the same point St. Jude said: "Those 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDBED-THIRTY-FIVE 

angels who kept not their own principality, but left their 
own habitation, he has kept in perpetual chains, under 
thick darkness, for the judgment of the great day". 
(Jude 6, Diaglott) Weymouth renders this passage: 
"And angels — those who did not keep the position 
originally assigned to them, but deserted their own 
proper abode — he reserves in everlasting bonds, in dark- 
ness, in preparation for the judgment of the great day". 
These texts definitely and conclusively locate these 
angels, showing that they left their first estate, which 
was spiritual and heavenly, and because of their wrong- 
ful relationships with the human race, God restrained 
them in bonds or in prison, a condition of darkness. The 
fact that they have been in darkness since the time of the 
deluge explains why the spiritist mediums operate more 
particularly in the dark ; and the fact that they are able 
to perform their operations in recent days more openly 
and with greater light is a testimony that the time of 
their judgment has been reached. 

HOW JESUS PREACHED 

While these demons have been in restraint, yet the 
facts show they have been able to observe what has been 
going on in the earth. In what manner, then, could and 
did Jesus preach to them ? We answer that his preaching 
to them was in pantomine ; that is to say, by his actions 
in rendering himself in obedience to God's will even 
unto death, and in his resurrection and exaltation that 
followed. Without doubt these angels knew Jesus in his 
prehuman existence when he was the Logos and before 
he became a man. When Jesus was healing the multi- 
tudes, "unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down 
before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God". 
(Mark 3:11) Again we read: "There was in their 
synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-THIRTY-SIX ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

out, saying, Let us alone ; what have we to do with thee, 
thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? 
I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And 
Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come 
out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, 
and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him." — 
Mark 1 : 23-26. 

In the beginning was the Logos, a spirit being on the 
spirit plane, the active agent of God in the creation of all 
things and who afterward was made flesh, and his name 
was called Jesus. — John. 1 : 1-14. 

CHARACTERS CONTRASTED 

We briefly restate, in order to emphasize the matter, 
the course of Lucifer as contrasted with the course of the 
Logos. Lucifer was an angel of great light and power, 
designated in the Scriptures as the covering cherub. 
(Ezekiel 28: 14, 16) He evidently was an exceedingly 
beautiful creature, according to the sacred account of 
the matter. His selfish ambition led him to take a 
position contrary and in opposition to God, and for 
this cause he was degraded and became that old serpent. 
Satan, the devil, the prince of demons, the enemy of 
righteousness and the instigator of wickedness. 

These spirits in prison were originally pure and holy 
beings. Evidently when they asked permission to come 
to earth and materialize their purposes were pure. But 
they fell to the seductive influence of Satan, which 
resulted in a greater degradation of the human race and 
ultimately in the restraint of these spirit beings in a 
prison condition. One of the ways of acquiring know- 
ledge is by observation; another, by experience. These 
angels had observed the wrongful course of Lucifer and 
saw that it led to his degradation. They had experienced 
the result of a wrongful course on their part and found 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-THIRTY- SEVEN 

themselves separated from the holy ones and imprisoned. 

Now let us refer again to the text first mentioned, 
which we quote: "Christ even once suffered on account 
of sins — the righteous for the unrighteous — that he 
might lead us to God, being indeed put to death in the 
flesh, but made alive in spirit; by which also [i. e., by 
his full obedience to God's will even unto death] he 
preached to the spirits in prison". And how wonderfully 
he did this! The whole human race was plunged into 
sin, sorrow, and death . God purposed to redeem and 
bless mankind, and to this end he offered the great honor 
to his beloved Son, the Logos, who became a man for 
the purpose of giving his life a ransom for mankind. 
"When he reached his legal majority we find him coming 
to the Jordan, as it was prophetically written of him, 
saying, "Lo, I come to do thy will, my God; for thy 
law is written in my heart". He rendered himself in 
absolute obedience to the Father's will. What was the 
Father's will concerning Jesus ? The Apostle Paul tells 
us that he was made a little lower than the angels, made 
a man, in order that, according to God's will, he might 
taste death for the human race. (Hebrews 2:9) Anc 1 
again, "There is one God and one mediator between Goa 
and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a 
ransom for all, to be testified in due time". ( 1 Timothy 
2: 5, 6) He "poured out his soul unto death" and made 
"his soul an offering for sin". (Isaiah 53:10-12) He 
died that mankind might live. (John 10: 10; Matthew 
20:28) In other words, he was wholly obedient to 
Jehovah's will. 

Therefore, the Apostle argues: "It is better, if the 
will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for 
evil doing. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, 
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, 
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-THIRTY-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the 
spirits in prison". To paraphrase this language : Jesus, 
because of his full obedience to Jehovah's will, suffered 
for doing well. He suffered death, the most ignominious 
death; and because he did this, "God also hath highly 
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every 
name : that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things 
under the earth; and that every tongue should confess 
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father".— Philippians 2:9-11. 

Thus Jesus by his actions spoke louder than by his 
words. By his full obedience to the Father's will, even 
to the suffering of death, he had gained the full approval 
of Jehovah. This was a most eloquent sermon to these 
imprisoned spirits and in effect said to them this: 
Behold the selfish, ambitious, disobedient course of 
Lucifer led to his degradation, and a similar course 
has led to our degradation. Now, on the other hand, 
behold the Logos, who was the mighty one of heaven, 
above Lucifer and above us, yet he did not ambitiously 
^eek anything for himself but always delighted to do 
Jehovah's will and he proved his loyalty to God and his 
perfect obedience by suffering the greatest thing that 
any one could possibly suffer. This course, therefore, 
has led to his exaltation to the highest position in the 
universe, next to Jehovah. A wrongful course leads to 
degradation. A rightful and proper course leads to 
exaltation, blessings and endless happiness. 

We submit that in no more eloquent way could Jesus 
have preached to these imprisoned spirits than he did 
by the course that he took, even to the time of his 
exaltation ; and without a doubt this is what St. Peter 
had in mind, because he directly connects the matter 
when he says that it was by means of his suffering in 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-THIRTY-NINE 

order to bring us to God that lie preached to these 
imprisoned spirits. 

It is not at all improbable that this full obedience of 
Jesus, resulting in his exaltation, being observed by these. 
fallen angels or imprisoned spirits, inspired in them a 
hope that some time, under some provisions, there 
might be a means of repentance and returning to a 
condition of harmony with God. And this would be a 
reason why the Apostle explains that Jesus thus preached 
to them; and this, together with the other text stating 
that they are restrained in prison until the judgment 
day, would indicate that at the time of judgment there 
might be a way of repentance for them. 

PROBATION FOR IMPRISONED SPIRITS 

Will those "spirits in prison", "those angels which 
kept not their first estate," and who received such a 
powerful though silent testimony and lesson from the 
ministry, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, ever 
have an opportunity to profit by those lessons? Will 
they ever have an opportunity to repent of their sin, 
leave Satan's service and return to loyalty to God? 

If at first we thought the Scriptures were silent on 
the subject, we have found that to be a mistake; and 
when God speaks we may reasonably conclude there is 
something profitable for us to hear. Hence, let us give 
ear that we may learn whatever our Father deems 
expedient to communicate. 

Jude (verse 6) informs us that those angels which, 
committed fornication and went after strange flesh, 
"also" "in like manner" to the Sodomites (verse 7), 
God is keeping under restraint (as a penalty or punish- 
ment) "unto [or until] the judgment of the great 
day". The "great day" is the Millennial day, and man- 
kind is also waiting for this judgment (hrisis — trial). 



PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-FORTY ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

The Apostle Peter's testimony is in harmony (2 Peter 
2:4); and St. Paul settles the matter that these fallen 
and now imprisoned spirit beings, as well as mankind, 
will have a trial nnder the reign of Christ and the 
church, "the kingdom of God" in exalted power. Speak- 
ing of the impropriety of the saints appealing to earthly 
courts of justice for adjustment of difficulties between 
themselves, he says: "Do you not know that the saints 
shall judge the world? . . . Know ye not that we shall 
judge angels f 9 — 1 Corinthians 6:1-4. 

The Greek word here rendered "judge", is Tcrino, of 
the same root as krisis, rendered "judgment" in Jude 
7, and signifies, to govern, to test; — to mete out to 
each individual blessings or stripes, according to the 
merit of his course when brought fully into the light of 
truth, and under all the blessings of the reign of Christ, 
Thus it is seen that it will be a part of the work of the 
Christ to rule over and direct both human and angelic 
sinners — "to judge the world" of fallen men, now 
restrained in death, from which they have been redeem- 
ed, and also to judge fallen angels, spirits, restrained 
alive until this judgment or trial of the great Millennial 
day, when the church under the headship of her Lord 
shall try their cause also, giving everlasting life andfavor 
to those who shall then prove themselves worthy of it, 
and everlasting destruction to those proved under full 
light and opportunity to be unworthy. 

Besides these references to the subject, we find fre- 
quent references to a work Christ is to do in subjecting 
heavenly, or spiritual, as well as human powers, after 
the church has been selected and the work of judging 
and blessing is commenced. For instance, we read (Ephe- 
sianfl 1:10): "In the dispensation of the fulness of 
times, to reestablish [under God's dominion and law] 
all things in Christ [the disordered things] that are in 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-FORTY-OND 

heaven [spiritual'] and on earth [human'] in him". — 
Douay translation. Again, "In him it hath well pleased 
the Father that all fulness should dwell, and through 
him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace 
by the blood of his cross, both as to the things on earth, 
and the things in heaven" — earthly and spiritual trans- 
gressors. — Colossians 1 : 20. — Douay. 

In Ephesians 3 : 8 - 10, it is shown that the length and 
breadth of God's redemptive plan has been hidden by 
God until the gospel age, when the apostles were coin- 
missioned to declare to men the conditions upon which 
they might become sharers with Christ in the execution 
of God's loving plan; and the intent is, ultimately, to 
have all the heavenly or spiritual beings know, through 
the instrumentality of the church, the boundless wealth 
that is in God's great gift — his Son — and the different 
methods and steps his wisdom marked out for all his 
creatures. We quote the passage from the Diaglott 
translation : 

"To me, the very lowest of the saints, was this favor 
given — to announce among the nations the glad tid- 
ings — the boundless wealth of the Anointed One : even to 
enlighten all as to what is the [method of] administra- 
tion [or operation] of that secret [plan] which has been 
concealed from the ages by that God who created all 
things; in order that now [henceforth] may be made 
known to governments and the authorities in the heaven- 
lies, through [the instrumentality of] the congregation 
[the church] the much diversified wisdom of God, ac- 
cording to a plan of the ages, which he formed for the 
Anointed Jesus our Lord." 

It would appear, then, that God's bountiful plan 
and diversified wisdom contain something of interest 
to the angels, and, if of interest to any, of special in- 
terest to those confined, or restrained, and awaiting a 



t>AGE ONE-HUNDRED-FORTY-TWO ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

'crial in the judgment of the great Millennial day. They 
see the saints and seek to look into things revealed by 
the spirit and Word to these; but in no other way can 
they learn of their future, or what provision has been 
made for themselves in the boundless wealth and diver- 
sified wisdom of God, because, as here stated, it is to 
be "made known . . .through the church". 

These condemned angels have been learning much 
since the first text and sermon ; — not only the lesson of 
our Lord's obedience and exaltation (1 Peter 3 : 18 - 20 ; 
1 Timothy 3 : 16), but also of his followers; for we read 
that "we are made a spectacle . . . both to angels and to 
men". (1 Corinthians 4: 9, Diaglott) The spectacle and 
lesson are to both men and angels for the reason that 
both men and angels will shortly be judged by the 
church and blessed by it, if found obedient and worthy of 
life. When the testimony in due time is given, all things, 
both in heaven (the spiritual condition) and on earth 
(the human), shall bow to Jehovah's Anointed and con- 
fess him their Lord and Kuler; and those who refuse 
obedience to his righteous authority shall be cut off from 
life, — destroyed as unworthy of life. — Isaiah 45 : 23 ; 
Eomans 14: 11; Acts 3 : 23. 

The angels that sinned in the days of Noah have : 
had a bitter experience since; no doubt death would 
have been preferable in many respects. Cut off from 
association with good angels, and placed in companion- 
ship with each other and Satan, without God and having 
no hope, they must have had a terrible experience with 
sin's demoralizing effects, while their observation of' 
mankind, dying on account of sin, would lead them to 
surmise that death might ultimately be their portion 
. That such was the fear of these unclean spirits is 
evidenced by the protest of one whom the Lord cast out: 
"Art thou come to destroy us?" (Mark 1:24; Luke 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-FOBTY-THIiEE 

4:34; Matthew 8: 29) But this no more proves that 
their suppositions were correct, than the belief of mil- 
lions of professed Christians, that nine-tenths of human- 
ity will be everlastingly tormented, proves that to be so. 
The fact is, we find that Satan, who taught men thus to 
blaspheme God's character by misrepresentation of the 
Mvine plan, was the master and chief over these cast- 
ci own spirits ; and evidently he has misrepresented Jeho- 
vah's plan to the imprisoned spirits as he has to men. 
He is the father of lies. 

Neither can we forget the respectful conduct of the 
fallen spirits toward our Lord and his apostles and the 
message they delivered; far more respectful indeed than 
that of the strictest sect of the Jewish church. While 
the latter scoffed and said, "Is not this Jesus, the son 
of Joseph?" (John 6: 42), the fallen spirits exclaimed, 
"Thou art the Son of God". (Mark 3: 11) While the 
former said. "Thou hast a devil and art mad," the 
latter said. "I know thee who thou art, the holy one of 
God".— Mark 1 : 24. 

The "legion", which had crazed the Gaclarene, wor- 
shiped Christ, acknowledging him to be the "Son of the 
Most High God".— Mark 5 : 6, 7. 

While they respected the true, they opposed the false, 
saying to some who pretended to exorcise them — "Jesus 
I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? And the 
man in whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them and 
overcame them". — Acts 19 : 15 ; 16 : 17. 

Both Jews and Gentiles beat and stoned the mes- 
sengers of God, when they came among them with the 
glad tidings of salvation, but some of these fallen angels 
seemed desirous of spreading the glad tidings. One 
followed the Apostle Paul and Silas, saying, "These 
men are the servants of the most high God, which show 
unto us [angels and men] the way of salvation'''.' 



CHAPTER VII 

THE HOPE FOR THE DEAD 

What would be the basis for hope for these imprisoned 
spirits or fallen angels to be reconciled to God? They 
had been seduced by Satan. By that we mean they had 
been deceived by him into taking a wrongful course ; and 
because of this, their punishment was fixed not as death, 
but imprisonment. The laws of the land impose the 
penalty of imprisonment for some crimes and when that 
term of imprisonment has been served and the record 
of the prisoner is good, and he gives evidence of refor- 
mation, the law opens the way to come back to 
citizenship. This illustrates somewhat God's method of 
dealing with these spirits. Because of their violation of 
his law he sentenced them to imprisonment. They have 
been a long time restrained in this condition. They have 
had full opportunity for meditation and observation and 
it is evident that the wonderful sermon in pantomine 
that Jesus preached to them by his full obedience to the 
will of God should be sufficient to teach every one that 
repentance, reformation and pursuit of a rightful course 
might gain the approval of Jehovah. And since the 
Scriptures declare they are incarcerated until judgment, 
the mere fact that they are to be judged indicates the 
possibility of being recovered from their prison condi- 
tion and restored to purity. This would not operate as 
a reversal of Jehovah's judgment, nor the change of any 
law, but it would mean that they had expiated their sin 
by serving their prison term and while so doing, reforma- 
tion had been effected in them. 

It is a general principle clearly taught by God's Word 
that he will preserve the righteous and give them life and 

145 



PAGE ONE-HUN T DRED-FOETT-SIX ? ? f TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

that the wicked shall be destroyed. Eef erring to the time 
of the reign of Christ, we read: "In his days shall the 
righteous nourish; and abundance of peace so long as 
the moon endureth". (Psalm 72: 7) And again, "The 
Lord preserveth all them that love him; but all the 
wicked will he destroy". (Psalm 145 : 20) Our conclu- 
sion, therefore, is that the basis for the blessing of any 
of these fallen angels would be full expiation of their 
wrong by serving their prison sentence and full repent- 
ance and complete return to righteousness. 

With man the basis for reconciliation with God is 
different. And herein the devil has confused the minds 
of many Christian people and induced them to believe 
that man is inherently immortal and that when he dies 
only his body dies, but that his soul continues to live and 
that that will be sent to eternal torture. There is abso- 
lutely no Scriptural ground for such a conclusion. 
Adam was not sentenced to prison. His sentence was 
death. God said to him : "Dust thou art, and unto dust 
shalt thou return". (Genesis 3:19) This death sen- 
tence could not be set aside, because God is unchange- 
able; but God could consistently provide a plan for the 
satisfaction of that judgment by a substitute; i.e., by 
another perfect man taking the place of Adam in death. 
And this is exactly what God promised to do when he 
said : "I will ransom them from the power of the grave ; 
I will redeem them from death : death, I will be thy 
plagues; grave, I will be thy destruction". — Hosea 
13:14. 

The plan of God, therefore, provides that the only 

basis for reconciliation of man with him is through a 

ransom. None of Adam's race could provide this neces- 

rausom. "ISTone of them can by any means redeem 

other, nor give to God a ransom for him." (Psalm 

40:7) This is why Jesus was made flesh and dwelt 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? ? PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-FORTY-SEYEtf 

among men — becoming a perfect man, in order that he 
might taste death for Adam and his offspring. — Hebrews 
2:9. 

When Adam sinned, the entire human race unborn 
was yet in his loins, i. e., he had the power and authority 
to start the propagation of the race which afterward 
he did start and which has continued. Hence God 
economically and lovingly included the entire human 
family under the original condemnation. When Jesus 
reached the age of thirty years he was a perfect man — 
mentally, morally, and physically, and perfect under the 
law. He was an exact counterpart of the perfect Adam 
in Eden prior to the disobedience. Jesus had the power 
and the authority as a perfect man to produce a race 
of people that would have filled the earth. He had come, 
however, to do the Father's will and it was the will of 
Jehovah that he should die and redeem Adam and his 
race. Consequently, the death of Jesus was an exact 
and complete offset for the sin of Adam and all of his 
progeny. One perfect man had sinned and fallen and 
lost all; another perfect man voluntarily permitted 
himself to be put to death, thus providing a vicarious 
atonement, an exact corresponding price, a ransom price 
whereby Adam and all of his offspring could be re- 
deemed. This is entirely in harmony with the words of 
Jesus, when he said : "I am come that they might have 
life, and that thev might have it more abundantly". — 
John 10 : 10 ; Matthew 20 : 28. 

The death and resurrection of Jesus constituted a 
guarantee that the whole human race shall be relieved 
of the Adamic condemnation ; but in the exercise of his 
loving-kindness, God provided that there should be se- 
lected from among men a class to be known as the bride 
of Christ, who should be associated with him in the 
glorious work of reconstruction or restitution. The 



PAGE ON'E-HUXDRED-FORTT-EIGHT ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

gospel age has been set aside for this purpose and that 
age finished, the merit of Christ's sacrifice must extend 
to every creature of Adam's stock. The church first 
receives the benefit of it and afterward, during the reign 
of Christ, the whole world of mankind. That is the 
time to which the Apostle referred when he said: "He 
[God] hath appointed a day, in the which he will 
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he 
hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all 
men, in that he hath raised him for the dead". (Acts 
17:31) That great judgment day for the world is 
about to begin, during which all evil shall be restrained 
and men shall have a full and fair opportunity to receive 
the blessings of life, liberty and happiness. 

Just preceding this day of wonderful blessings, how- 
ever, the final conflict is on between the powers of evil 
and the powers of light and truth. Satan, mustering all 
of his forces, is attempting to deceive the whole race 
and thwart, if possible, God's purpose. According to 
Jesus, he will succeed in deceiving all except those who 
love God supremely; and these have the promise of 
being fully protected and delivered. Then in this great 
conflict Christ Jesus will triumph and with him in this 
triumphant victory will be the members of his bride — 
the called, the chosen, and the faithful. (Revelation 
17:14) ,At this time Satan will be completely restrained. 
(See Revelation 20:1-3) Then shall follow, under 
conditions favorable for enlightenment, the glorious 
reign of the Messiah, during which time all in their 
craves shall hear the voice of the Lord and come forth 
to a trial ; and rendering themselves in obedience to the 
Lord's laws in that trial, they shall be restored to com- 
plete perfection. 

This glorious plan for blessing mankind God has been 
carrying out in an orderly way and the demons, work- 



TALKING WITH THE DEAD ? ? t PAGE ONE-HUNDRED-FORTY-NINE 

ing under the supervision of Satan, have persistently 
endeavored to blind the minds of the people as to God's 
purposes. They attempt to convince the wise and other- 
wise that the dead are not dead; that there is no such 
thing as death, but that the soul is immortal and that 
the dead have passed on to another condition ; and hence 
prevent millions from accepting the message of Christ. 
In this way Satan blinds the minds of the people ; other- 
wise they would believe the truth. — See 2 Cor. 4 : 4. 

The ransom sacrifice having been provided, which will 
be applied and administered to the people under the 
terms of the new covenant that shall be made at the 
beginning of the Millennial reign of Christ, and the 
blessing of man will begin through the resurrection 
process. All the dead shall be resurrected, both the just 
and the unjust. (Acts 24: 15) All shall be brought to 
an accurate knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2 : 3, 4) 
And all, then, under full knowledge, who refuse to obey 
the Lord shall be destroyed. (Acts 3 : 23) But all who 
desire righteousness, who love righteousness, and who 
will put forth their best endeavors to serve the Lord, 
will be gradually lifted up by the restitution process; 
and the reign of Christ will bring the desire of every 
honest heart. His reign will destroy all the enemies of 
humankind and the last enemy to be destroyed will be 
death. — 1 Corinthians 15 : 25, 26. 

The prophet beautifully states it: "The ransomed of 
the Lord [which means all the human race] shall re- 
turn [from the condition of death to their former estate 
on earth], and come to Zion [the Christ] with songs and 
everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy 
and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away". 
—Isaiah 35 : 10. 

This glorious kingdom of Messiah is the Golden Age 
of which the prophets wrote, of which the Psalmist sang, 



PAGE OXE-HUNDRED-FIFTY ? ? ? TALKING WITH THE DEAD 

and for which Christians have hoped and prayed for 
many centuries past. While St. John upon the isle of 
Patmos was serving a prison sentence under an unjust 
charge of sedition, the Lord was pleased to give him a 
beautiful vision of this kingdom. He uses the word city 
to symbolize the kingdom of the Lord and describes how 
this kingdom comes down from God out of heaven and 
is established in the earth; and how then, under the 
righteous and beneficent reign of the great Messiah, all 
things shall be made new. "God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any 
more pain : for the former things are passed away." And 
then will be seen in their glory and beauty the new 
heavens and new earth wherein will dwell righteousness 
for evermore. 



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(152) 



Volume I, "Studies in the Scriptures" Series 




THINGS YOU OUGHT TO KNOW AS 

CHRISTIAN BIBLE STUDENTS 

The Satisfactory Proofs That 
The Bible is a Divine Revelation — reasonable and trust- 
worthy, revealing a systematic Plan full of Justice, Wis- 
dom and Love. "The Key of Knowledge" of the Scriptures, 
long lost is found, and gives God's faithful people access 
to the "Hidden Mystery". — Luke 11 : 52 ; Colossians 1 : 26. 
The Lord Jesus and His faithful are to be not only priests 
but kings, and will reign over the earth. 
This kingdom is to come at Christ's Second Advent. 
God's Plan is to select and save the Church in the Gospel 
Age, and to use this Church in blessing the world in the 
Millennium. A "ransom for all" implies an opportunity 
to all for restitution. The Day of Judgment is 1,000 
years long — the world's trial day. 

"The narrow way" of self-sacrifice will cease with this Age. 
"The highway" of righteousness will be open to all the 
redeemed race in the Millennium. — Isaiah 35 : 8, 9. 
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Chinese, Japanese and Korean ; also Braille, for the blind.) 

sgs pages — cloth bound, 75c, postpaid or delivered 

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(153) 



Volume IV, "Studies in the Scriptures" Series 




"None of the Wicked Will Understand" 

BUT "THE WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND" THAT THIS 

Gospel Age is closing with a "Day of Vengeance". It will 
affect the whole world, especially Christendom. All Polit- 
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give an appreciation, yet to hide the real nature, of that 
"Time of Trouble such as Never Has been since there was 
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God's Kingdom, the only hope for humanity, is sure. 
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Revelation 2 : 26, 27 ; Daniel 2 : 34, 35, 44, 45. 

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Matthew 2Jfth Chapter elucidated in 

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(154) 




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